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Chapter Text

“You signed up for what?”

Hua Cheng leans back on the swivel chair in He Xuan’s office, crossing both of his arms behind his head with a smirk.

“You told me you thought I needed a break because my work was falling to shit. So I’m taking one.”

He Xuan lifts one hand and rubs at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, looking all the world like he’d rather go submerge himself in a body of water and scream into the abyss.

“I meant you should go to a fucking beach for a week, not that you should fuck off into the middle of nowhere for four months.”

“You should work on your communication a bit more then.” Hua Cheng knows the grin on his face is a shit-eating one, but He Xuan makes it so easy.

“What am I supposed to tell your clients? You’ve got three commissions due over the next month alone.” He Xuan looks torn between throwing something at Hua Cheng, and slamming his laptop shut and quitting.

Hua Cheng shrugs. “I’ll get Yin Yu to draft an explanation. Call it an artistic break.”

“What, you’re going to find your inspiration in a fucking rice paddy surrounded by smelly animals?” He Xuan rolls his eyes viciously, his mouth twisted into a sneer. Hua Cheng laughs, knowing he’s succeeded in winding up his agent.

“I’m going to find myself, and the meaning of my life, He Xuan.” Hua Cheng says with false earnestness, his eyes wide. “Don’t you support me in this?”

He Xuan looks over at him and rolls his eyes again. Hua Cheng points out that if he keeps pulling that face, it may get stuck like that.

He Xuan grabs a catalogue of Hua Cheng’s own art off his desk and throws it in his direction, close enough that the hard corner smacks Hua Cheng’s arm as it flies past. This only makes Hua Cheng more determined to wind him up, and so he gives him a wounded expression.

“No, I don’t support you and your ridiculous ideas. Get out of here.”

Hua Cheng stands, and his smirk returns to his face.

“See you in September.”

“Fuck off.”

Hua Cheng’s laugh can be heard down the hallway.

How had Hua Cheng ended up in this situation, ready to leave the city and move to a farm in the middle of nowhere?

Well.

The truth of it started when he was twelve years old, trapped in an alleyway with a pack of older bullies descending on him. There had been nothing new to the attack, his classmates picking on him because of the poorer quality of his clothes, his smaller size and the red eye that stood out so harshly in his pale, skinny face compared to his brown eye. He had been an easy target, and this group were no different to the other groups that would corner him and tease him, pin him down so he couldn’t fight back.

But something was different that time, in that the seventeen year old heir to the Xianle Enterprises empire had been passing through that part of the city, on his way to some philanthropic event, and had seen the whole thing.

Hua Cheng remembers very little from his early school days, but he remembers the sight of Xie Lian storming down the alley, a closed red umbrella in his hand, and staring in awe as he beat away the bullies with just a fucking umbrella.

Xie Lian had smiled at him when they were gone, instructed his driver to grab the first aid kit from the car, and patched Hua Cheng up right in that little alley, as though he wasn’t in one of the most dangerous parts of the city. Hua Cheng remembers his carefree smile, the way he’d been so kind and happy to help him, and how Xie Lian had his driver take Hua Cheng home so the bullies couldn’t get him after Xie Lian had left.

Hua Cheng’s entire life trajectory changed after that. He had been young, impressionable, and finding out information about the Xianle Enterprises’ heir wasn’t difficult - the boy was the jewel of the city, fawned upon as the heir to the biggest employer in the city, offered modelling and advertisement contracts until his pretty face was everywhere.

So Hua Cheng had admired from afar, and became determined to rise himself out of the circumstances he’d grown up in. He had gained a scholarship for an excellent college, graduated school and discovered in college that he had a love and a talent for art, and hoped that he could somehow find Xie Lian.

(And he did have a crush, a full blown one, but not one that could be easily stoked given that Xie Lian was always so far out of his reach.)

Hua Cheng worked hard, spent his life inside his rented studio and making connections, getting his art out there. But in the end, he’d overdone it, and had failed to pay attention to the news channels when, two months into his college degree, Xianle Enterprises crumbled.

He’d only noticed at the end of his first year, when he’d realised that he had not seen anything of Xie Lian, not on the billboards or the subway adverts or on the front pages of the magazine stands.

A cursory online search revealed that Xianle Enterprises had been quietly dissolved months earlier, all of their assets seized by various banks and sold. There was nothing available online regarding the family that was recent, save for a shittily-written news article about the Xie patriarch losing his life in an accident that was deemed suspicious, only days before Xie Lian had dropped out of his PhD programme and disappeared.

There were internet forums, of course, who claimed the missing heir to Xianle Enterprises had been killed too, but Hua Cheng had refused to believe that. He had taken Xie Lian as his muse for his artwork and refused to listen to rumours from online sleuths, using his own memory and the many, many images of Xie Lian online as an inspiration for many of his sculptures. Nothing was an exact copy of anything Xie Lian had modelled for, but nearly all of his sculptures or portraits featured that kindness, grace and benevolence wrapped up in warm eyes and a gentle smile.

But there is only so much one can create from memory, and as the years went on, Hua Cheng’s innate sense of artistry had hit a brick wall, taken up by commissions and jobs he didn’t even really need, not after he’d made a name for himself. The passion had gone, replaced with rote jobs one after the other, all commissions of the same thing, either one of his floral murals or one of his life-like statues, all for seafronts or museum walls or botanical gardens.

It was repetitive. Hua Cheng was bored.

It had led to a show where one critic cited his latest commissions as uninspired, lacking heart, and He Xuan had finally stepped in and told Hua Cheng to fuck off on a break and come back with his inspiration, even if meant returning with “painted fucking seashells”.

The farm job had been a fluke, he’ll admit. He’d seen it online, one of those stupid advertisements that looked a little dodgy, but he’d clicked it anyway. He could apply, and be assigned anywhere in the world to a farm who needed labour in exchange for housing and food. It was all through a third-party company, so he didn’t actually get to apply to a farm of his choice - it would be randomly assigned by the company.

And yes, he was really fucking drunk when he filled out the application, but it’s fine. He didn’t think he’d get chosen for one anyway - unsurprisingly, his farming skills are non-existent.

But he had. He’d been assigned to a Puqi Farm, hundreds of miles deep into the country and far from any city or town where he’d be recognised. A cursory search for Puqi Village led him to a tiny rural village that had only been given internet access in the 2010s.

He’d seen a few articles celebrating how the government had finally built them a road to the closest, larger village that was connected by bus to the cities. It was so unbelievably rural that Hua Cheng could not possibly have gotten farther away from Xianle if he’d tried.

He might have requested that - he can’t actually remember, but he really isn’t surprised that with his luck the programme delivered. He has to leave in a week, on a journey that, according to his itinerary, is going to be a slow descent into the rural life. He needs to take a flight to Wuyong, the closest city to Puqi Village, and then he has to get two trains, then a bus, and from there he has to wait at the bus station until a mini bus comes and gets him and drops him off at a bus stop that is also, presumably, in the middle of nowhere.

And then he has to wait until someone comes and gets him.

Predictably, it rains the day he leaves.

It’s not even a steady rain where his umbrella would be helpful, or one of those annoying drizzly rains that soaks everything even with an umbrella. It’s one of those awful spring storms, the rain pelting down on his umbrella with such force that it’s almost a struggle to keep it upright. He’s lucky his bags are waterproof, else everything inside would be ruined within minutes.

Hua Cheng hasn’t packed much, just various clothes that are comfortable and easy to move around in along with some art supplies.

No point trying to find himself, after all, if he doesn’t get any sort of sketching or painting done whilst he’s out there.

Otherwise, he packs light on purpose. No laptop, and no other electronics apart from his phone, his charger, and some earphones. It’s surprisingly refreshing, not having to worry about whether he’s forgotten some electronic or charger, though he does pack nearly all of his skincare products. It forms the bulk of the weight in his case, but as he’d told Yin Yu when he sent him out to purchase nearly a boat-load of new sunscreen and a hat, he’ll only burn his skin into one huge blister if he thinks he can get cocky with the summer sun.

At least he hadn’t been stupidly optimistic and worn the hat to the airport.

The flight had been the smoothest, easiest part. Five and a half hours, and he’d made sure Yin Yu got him business class so he had at least some luxury before absconding into the countryside. The first train, too, had been fine, as the city disappeared behind him and it passed through various large towns, until eventually he’d had to get off in what was probably a very small town.

There, the second train had looked like it was going to roll off the tracks with a good gust of wind.

It is in the middle of the second train journey, however, when he truly comes to realise just how rural this Puqi Village is. The scenery of the town he departs from changes slowly into rich green country scenes. They’re in relatively flat land when the sun sets and he reclines his seat into a flat sleeping position, determined to get as much sleep as he can. The cabin is quiet, the benefit of the business upgrade he’d insisted Yin Yu purchase for him, but when he wakes up it’s to find the scenery outside has changed to that of a lush mountain range.

It takes another hour for the ground to somewhat level off, and Hua Cheng begins to see the first of old, traditional villages outside the window.

The town he gets off at is only small, probably serving no more than a few thousand people. The bus station is decently sized though, so Hua Cheng figures that the town must at least serve as a hub spreading out to all the smaller towns and villages in the region.

After waiting three hours for the bus heading out to the next village over from Puqi Village, Hua Cheng nearly falls out of his seat when, an hour into the journey, the driver stops by the side of a little mountain road and tells him it is his stop.

On one hand, the minibus is already there, presumably waiting for anyone who is willing to travel this far out.

On the other, the minibus journey is genuinely the most terrifying drive of his life. Not because of the driver, no, but because of the twisting turns of the road, the tiny barriers at the side that would surely do nothing if the minibus toppled over on a bend, sending it plummeting down what feels like miles of a mountainside. In some areas the fog and mist had been so dense that Hua Cheng had genuinely wondered how the driver could even tell where the road was, and more than once he contemplated just asking to stop until it cleared.

And then finally, finally, the minibus rolls to a stop, and Hua Cheng cannot get out of the thing quick enough.

He has to reign in a hysterical laugh when he realises that the bus stop is no more than a metal post with a wooden board attached, listing the bus timetable for the village. The modern road literally comes to a stop just beyond it, the concrete coming to a sharp end where it meets a dusty, unpaved road.

There’s not even a bench.

Hua Cheng inhales deeply, clamping down on the slightly-panicked urge to ask himself what the fuck is he even doing here.

He throws his bags down onto the road, sitting on top of the one that he knows is filled with clothes, and resigns himself to waiting until someone comes and gets him.

Thankfully, he isn’t waiting long.

He hears the cart before he sees it, the wheels squeaking and clunking in tandem with the steady plod of horse hooves on hard floor. The path into the village is unpaved but well-used, winding into the woods this side of the mountain tunnel, so it’s not surprising that he can hear it through the trees.

What’s surprising is that he’s being picked up in a fucking cart.

The old man driving it gives him a wave once he’s in view, which Hua Cheng returns with much less excitement, getting to his feet and grabbing his bags.

“You the kid from the city?” The man asks as his cart rumbles to a stop, raising an eyebrow as he appraises Hua Cheng. He must be pleased by whatever he sees, though Hua Cheng thinks that’s probably because young men to help on farms are a dying breed. “Hop on in, I’ll take you to the farm.”

“Don’t any of you have cars?” He asks the old man, trying in vain to keep the horror out of his voice. The old man’s pleasant demeanour shifts into an irritated one, and he scowls down at Hua Cheng.

“If the cart isn’t good enough, I’ll go and return with the truck.” He pauses, lets Hua Cheng absorb that information, and then smiles. “Tomorrow morning.”

Hua Cheng really tries not to roll his eyes, figuring he probably deserves that one for coming across like a spoilt city brat. It’s late, and he’s travelled far too long to spend the night at the bus stop.

“Well, the cart it is.” With a huff, he throws his bags into the back of the cart and then clambers in after it, refusing to let himself care about all the straw and hay that sticks to his clothes. If the old man is surprised that Hua Cheng willingly threw himself in the back after complaining about there being no car, he says nothing, only grunts as Hua Cheng makes a pile out of his bags and then lies down against them.

He’s propped up a little, arms crossed over his chest, and it’s somewhat uncomfortable - though definitely not so bad that he won’t be able to sleep. There’s a small lurch as the cart begins to move, but once it gets going the movement is steady, almost soothing in the way it rocks him back and forth

Content to lay there and observe quietly, Hua Cheng pays some attention as they head down the road towards the main village. Only one car passes the whole twenty minutes that it takes to get to the village, but Hua Cheng finds he’s pleasantly surprised to see that it does look somewhat modernised. A little teahouse is what he first notices, followed by a small grocery store connected to what looks like a tiny cheap touristy stand, both of them closed even though it can’t be any later than seven in the evening.

It doesn’t take long to cross through the village, as Hua Cheng catches sight of a few houses before the buildings begin to spread further apart. There are a few people sitting on tables outside their houses, enjoying the warm evening with their families. Many of them pause to wave at the old man and Hua Cheng, who only gives them an uncomfortable wave in return.

It’s going to be one of those villages isn’t it, he thinks, the type where everyone knows each other and it’s impossible to pass by anyone without getting stopped.

He’s ruminating on this, and wondering how much longer now before they reach the farm, when the old man sits up a little in his seat and begins to shift.

“Hey, city boy.” The old man breaks the silence, surprising Hua Cheng. He’s a little irritated at the form of address, but when he sits up the man nods his head in the direction of the road ahead. “Here’s your host.”

Before Hua Cheng can speak, the old man is already shouting.

“Mr Xie! Need a ride?”

Huh? Hua Cheng turns to look down the road, spotting the form of a man meandering down the worn path. He carries two huge sacks, one slung over each shoulder. Hua Cheng can’t see much of him because the path is beginning to get dark, but that’s not the most pressing matter.

Hua Cheng is confused, mostly because he’d been told that his host was a Hua Xie, and he doubts that they break from tradition here in the rural countryside. Surely Mr. Hua would be more appropriate, unless the old man is just trying to differentiate between Hua Cheng and Hua Xie?

He stares, uncertain, as the man turns on the path, his face hidden by his large straw hat. He thanks the old man in a kindly tone as the cart rolls to a stop, and something about it triggers something visceral inside Hua Cheng, a memory of a voice he never thought he’d hear again.

He sits up straighter, watching as the man hauls the sacks onto the back of the cart and climbs in. There is an awkward pause as the cart shifts and starts moving again, before Hua Cheng’s host for the next four months laughs and pulls off his hat.

He smiles as he puts the hat in the space between their crossed legs, his hair mussed from wearing it for too long. Hua Cheng stares at him, bewitched by inky hair and a kind, amused smile. When he speaks, his voice is friendly, soft and all too familiar.

“You must be San Lang! I’m Xie Lian, it’s so nice to meet you.”

Chapter Text

“Hua Cheng.” That he manages to speak his own name is a miracle when his mind is trying to comprehend the sheer impossibility of this meeting, fourteen years after their first and only encounter and quite literally days away from the nearest city.

The missing heir to the Xianle Enterprises, Xie Lian, sitting on the back of a cart with his arms resting on two bulky sacks, smiling as though he has no care in the world.

His eyes are sharp, though, and they fix Hua Cheng in place with their intensity.

“I was told you were called San Lang.” His lips quirk up on one side as he tilts his head, clearly curious, and Hua Cheng can’t help but mirror it.

“It seems I’m not the only one who wants to lay low out here, gege.” He says it to tease, to diffuse any tension long before it has the chance to crop up, but to his surprise Xie Lian laughs.

“Which one do you prefer?” Xie Lian asks, leaning back against the side of the cart. He raises one arm to rest along the top of the side, resting his head in his hand.

He looks calm and assured, as though there is little in life that he has to be stressed over. There’s a burn on his scalp from being caught out in the sun without his hat, and a healthy smattering of freckles over his nose and up his cheeks. His lips are stretched into a friendly smile, his eyes crinkled at the corners from the width of it.

When he raises his brows at Hua Cheng, he realises he has yet to reply.

“San Lang, if gege doesn’t mind.”

Xie Lian nods, shifting a little as he gets more comfortable. He jumps straight into questioning Hua Cheng, who doesn’t actually mind it, not like he usually does when people try to find out personal information about him.

“What made you decide to come and live on a farm for four months?”

Hua Cheng shrugs, trying to play it off nonchalantly.

“I was getting bored in the city. My agent told me to take a break, and I thought going rural was the best way to do it. I was more tipsy than I should have been when I made the decision to apply.”

“Oh really? Your application said you were wanting to find yourself, and take an adventure you’ve never had a chance to take.” Xie Lian grins, a teasing lilt to his tone, and Hua Cheng feels his own cheeks begin to pinken.

He wrote what?!

“I was really very drunk.” He stresses, and grins when he is rewarded with another laugh. “What about gege? The information that the agency sent said this was your first year hosting someone - what made you decide to do it this year?”

“I’ve been able to do a lot on the farm on my own the last few years, but last year I started to struggle.” He motions over to the two sacks sitting near to Hua Cheng’s bags. “I’d finish with the animals and checking in on each of the terraces, and I’d barely have time to do much else before it got dark. I went weeks without going into the village because I didn’t have time, so I decided to get some help this year, especially with the planting.”

Hua Cheng nods. “And you got me.”

“And I got you! It’s not easy work San Lang, but I’m hoping nothing I’ve planned is too difficult. They told me to plan for an absolute beginner no matter who they picked.” Xie Lian scratches his cheek, a little awkward as though he’s trying to refrain from actively sizing Hua Cheng up for the months ahead.

“Don’t worry gege, I’m stronger than I look.” Not that Xie Lian, with his shorter height and his body hidden by an oversized cardigan, looks like the typical farmer. Hua Cheng wonders what is in the big sacks, because Xie Lian had carried them with such ease.

Xie Lian smiles at him, and this time the look is knowing, faintly amused and pleased at Hua Cheng’s confidence.

Somehow, Hua Cheng has a feeling he’s going to regret saying such a thing without hesitation.

The woods become sparser as the path continues, until there are less trees and more underbrush, shrubs and weeds lining the path until they’re completely out of the canopy, and the view ahead clears, the forest disappearing as the land evens out and gently slopes down a hill.

“We’re here!” Xie Lian says with excitement as the cart rolls to a stop, tying his hat beneath his chin and sliding off the edge of the cart.

Hua Cheng stares ahead, an odd, choked feeling caught in his chest.

The farm is…well.

Beautiful.

Hua Cheng has seen plenty of art and photography of terrace farming, enamoured of beautiful photographs of colourful fields descending down a hill in precisely formed segments, winding around the shape of the hill with little paths between them.

Those photos don’t do any justice to what he sees now.

From where the cart stops, the road continues down, decently-sized and gravelled as it traverses down a fairly-steep slope, stopping at the top of the terraced fields. A battered green truck is parked where it stops, the truck-bed open and full of tools, wood off-cuts and bags of sand.

Beyond it, the fields start. There’s a path that runs down the middle of them, interspersed with steps to make it easier to get between each level. Half of them have been tilled on one side, and the rest are grassy and green in the fading-light. With the sun setting in the background, it looks like a scene out of a folk tale.

Halfway down these terraces is where the farm sits, a small building set neatly a short distance from the edge of the terrace, sheltered from the wind by the natural incline of the hill behind it. From the distance, it looks like it might even have a small courtyard, almost covered as it is by the slanted roofs on each three sides of the main building. The walls are whitewashed, with black tiles on the roofs and the wood around the windows painted dark. It stands out amongst the greenery all around it, likely a useful guide home when the nights get dark.

Further down, past the terraces where the ground levels out into a basin-like space, is a large barn, painted red, and Hua Cheng wonders if Xie Lian keeps animals in there. Maybe sheep? He thinks he might like sheep.

He’s never seen one before, though, not up close.

With a pang of surprise, Hua Cheng realises that he’s never seen any farm animal up close. There’s hardly any sheep or cows roaming around Xianle, after all.

“Well, what do you think?” Xie Lian asks, breaking Hua Cheng out of his reverie. When he turns, still a little speechless, it’s to the sight of Xie Lian hauling their bags off the cart.

“It’s an unbelievable view, gege.” Hua Cheng is more earnest than he’s ever been in his life, he thinks as he grabs his backpack and his large travel bags. Xie Lian beams at him, pleased as he hauls the two sacks up, throwing one over each shoulder.

“I’m glad San Lang thinks so.”

He shouts a friendly goodbye to the old man driving the cart, and Hua Cheng forces himself to give him a more serious, grateful goodbye to avoid him going back to the village and telling everyone the boy from the city is a spoilt brat.

From the way the old man nods at him and waves before he turns his cart around, Hua Cheng thinks he might have been successful.

It’s a slightly difficult walk down to the farm, no doubt made more so by the fact that they’re both carrying heavy bags. Xie Lian bears it with ease, talking softly as they go, but Hua Cheng can’t deny that the back of his neck is drenched with sweat, and he thinks it might be beading on his forehead.

If he stares at Xie Lian, it’s because he’s so shocked that the man doesn’t seem to be breaking a sweat. It’s humid and warm, thankfully not hot enough yet that the night air is sticky, but Hua Cheng has a feeling it won’t be long now.

Finally, they reach the level with the farmhouse, and Xie Lian heads towards it with a sweet eagerness in his expression. Close up, it looks like it’s probably a sharp U-shaped building with a rectangular courtyard inside, with the entryway covered by some red beams of wood that offer a little shade.

“Here we go. Welcome to your home for the next few months, San Lang!”

Xie Lian throws the sacks down as they enter the courtyard, and Hua Cheng realises he was right - it’s narrow, likely no wider than five metres, and much of it is ducked beneath the overhanging edges of the slanted roofs. They’re supported with wooden posts, nearly all of which are covered with nails holding various things up.

One post holds multiple types of gloves, thick gardening ones and even heavier-duty building ones, plastic gloves and delicate cotton ones. Buckets and pails hang from beneath the roofs, with shovels and shears and rakes and other farming equipment leaned up against the walls of the house.

There are no entrances on the parts of the building to his left and right, only big, rickety-looking windows. Ahead of him, the door to the house is sturdy and well-made, though Hua Cheng suspects it might actually be older than him and Xie Lian combined. The windows to the left and right of the door are small, but combined with the rest of the windows he imagines it probably lights up the interior better than he thinks.

It’s a cluttered and messy courtyard, but there’s something rustic and charming to it that appeals to him, and he realises that he likes it.

Him, Hua Cheng, lover of the minimalistic, who has never owned enough personal items aside from his art supplies to even clutter up his home in the first place. Sure, most of the tools look old, but they look well-used and well-loved.

Before he can say anything, the pile of what Hua Cheng had thought was wool begins to move, and one of the biggest dogs Hua Cheng has ever seen begins to uncurl from its slumber on the porch.

Hua Cheng is stared at by what he can only assume is sixty kilos of pure muscle and fur before the long tail behind it wags with such force that the whole dog shakes, and then the only warning he gets is Xie Lian’s panicked Ruoye, no!

The ground is hard when he hits it, enough so that all the air is knocked from his lungs. The shepherd dog that had knocked him to the floor is good enough to not sit on his chest, but unfortunately he’d rather it be doing that than literally washing his face with its tongue.

“Ruoye, come here!” Xie Lian sounds mortified, which makes Hua Cheng a little more amenable to his impromptu bath. He lifts his hands to bury them in the mass of white fur, trying to give the dog a good scratch to distract it from his face.

“I’m so sorry, San Lang - Ruoye.” Xie Lian’s voice deepens with the command, and the dog - Ruoye - lets out a sad little whine before she walks over to her owner.

“It’s alright, gege, don’t worry.” Hua Cheng sits up, brushing the dirt off his arms before getting up to his knees and holding his hand out for Ruoye to sniff.

The big white fluffy tail wags along the floor, collecting up the dirt before Ruoye comes closer again, much calmer this time even though she looks close to excitedly pouncing on him a second time. Hua Cheng scratches between her ears and down the back of her neck as she wiggles into his touch, enjoying the soft feel of her fur between his fingers.

Xie Lian beams down at them, and Hua Cheng finds that genuinely smiling back comes easily, far more comfortable with the expression than he ever has been at home.

“Shall we go inside?” Xie Lian asks after a beat, leaning down to grab one of Hua Cheng’s bags for him. He leads the way inside as Hua Cheng gets to his feet and grabs the other bag, following him through the large door into a fairly open, bright interior.

On the left is a living space, a beat-up old couch facing a TV that is mounted on a wooden cabinet, with bookshelves on either side of the TV. There are potted plants everywhere in this space, taking advantage of the light and airy room. The floor is wooden, not entirely matched or even in their spacing, but well-constructed and clean, covering the entirety of the entry space. On the right is an open kitchen with a plethora of different pots and pans, baking tins and cooking knives. They’re all well used, though Hua Cheng feels a pang when he sees the little table with two chairs, with one clearly more worn than the other.

Does Xie Lian eat in here alone, every evening?

Hua Cheng mentally vows that he’s going to eat with Xie Lian every chance he gets.

“My room is through that door.” Xie Lian points to a door to their left, on the same side of the wall as the front door. “And the door next to the kitchen is the bathroom, and then this door on the right is to your room.”

He takes Hua Cheng’s wrist and pulls him in the direction of the door, opening it with a nervous laugh. “It’s a little sparse, which I am sorry about. I was using it as a store room, so I had to empty it and get you some furniture.”

Hua Cheng follows him in with some trepidation given everything Xie Lian has just said, but to his surprise it’s nice inside. There’s a faint scent of paint, along with the distinctive smell of unused wooden furniture. The room is bright, with a window facing into the courtyard and another looking out over the path up to the farm and the terraces beyond, and though it is sparsely decorated, it’s as clean as the rest of the house.

The bed is a single, which is definitely going to take some getting used to after being spoilt with his king-sized one at home. He has a little bedside cabinet, with a wardrobe tucked in the other far corner of the room. There’s also a small desk with a table-lamp and a swivel chair, which he thinks could actually come in handy if he gets around to doing any art.

For now, he puts his bag on the desk, feeling a little more relaxed now that he’s seen where he’s sleeping. It might not be a grand room in a huge farmhouse with all the trappings of a cosy country life, but he likes that he’s the first person to be sleeping in here. It makes it feel a little more like it could really be his room, and not just a place he stays whilst he works for Xie Lian.

“I like it, gege.” He says, and means it. Xie Lian looks at him with his brows raised in surprise, but when he sees the sincerity in Hua Cheng’s face his expression turns into a delighted smile.

“Oh, good! Is there anything I’ve missed that you’d like to know tonight? We can go over other things tomorrow, I know you’ve had a long day.”

Hua Cheng shakes his head. “No, I don’t think…” He pauses as he pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees the big x right where the signal bars should be. “Oh. Gege, do you have wifi?”

Xie Lian looks very pleased that he has been asked that question.

“I do! I got internet access around three years ago? It was very exciting! I’d gone so long without it that even I’d forgotten how to use it, aha. That’s why it took me so long to put the farm on the organic farming programme. The details should be on a piece of paper in the bedside cabinet.” Xie Lian’s smile is so cute that Hua Cheng has to fight down the urge to grin right back at him.

In his state, after two days of travelling without a decent night of sleep, he’d probably just look like a wild, feral cat.

“May I use gege’s shower?” Hua Cheng asks instead, desperate for some hot water to wash away the latent grossness that comes with travelling. Xie Lian’s smile falters, and he scratches his cheek awkwardly.

“Ah, San Lang, did you read the document I sent when you accepted the placement?”

Document? There was a document?

Hua Cheng didn’t read anything - that was down to Yin Yu, who organised it all after Hua Cheng had sent off his application.

What could possibly have been in a document that would relate to the shower?

Maybe they’re required to share to conserve water-

No. Bad.

Hua Cheng bites his own tongue in time to be mentally present when Xie Lian smiles a little nervously.

“We don’t ah - have a shower? There’s a stream out back that’s very refreshing, but I wouldn’t recommend using it until tomorrow - the water gets a little cold after dark.” Xie Lian’s smile is all sincerity and awkward bashfulness, but not even that can wipe the shock from Hua Cheng’s face.

A…stream? That can’t be - isn’t there some kind of water bug that could make him sick if he accidentally swallows some of the water when washing his hair?  Granted, the water out here is probably the purest, cleanest water he’ll ever come across, straight from the mountains itself, but no shower?

His train of thought comes to a halt just as he’s contemplating the logistics of having Yin Yu deliver a pre-fab bathroom, when Xie Lian bursts out laughing.

“Oh, I’m sorry San Lang, but your face - I really couldn’t resist.” He reaches out, squeezes Hua Cheng’s shoulder, and Hua Cheng doesn’t think he could ever be angry at that laugh. “The shower is in the main bathroom next door to your bedroom, just out the back. The heater will groan something awful though, if you want it hot. It’s too used to only giving me cold showers.”

“You don’t like hot showers?” Hua Cheng asks, trying to distract from the little flutter in his chest at seeing Xie Lian laugh with such joy on his face.

Xie Lian’s mouth downturns into an expression of uncertainty. “Ah, you probably won’t either after a day out in the fields.”

Oh. Hua Cheng supposes that’s true, and the thought is grim.

“Anyway, there’s a shelf in the bathroom too that I’ve cleared for your stuff if you’d like. I hope it’s okay. Do you want me to knock on your door in the morning to wake you up?” Xie Lian asks, and Hua Cheng nods in response.

“If I haven’t woken up by six, please.”

Xie Lian’s nod is more enthusiastic, and his smile is dimpled. How had Hua Cheng not noticed the dimples?

“Okay. Well, goodnight San Lang!”

“Night, gege.” Hua Cheng watches him leave, hears him pad through to the bathroom to brush his teeth as Hua Cheng starts unpacking his bags. Xie Lian heads straight into his bedroom after, though the courtyard between their rooms means that he can’t hear a thing as he gets his stuff ready for the bathroom.

He showers quickly, exhausted and eager to just get in a bed and sleep. A real bed, not a train or a plane seat, but a stable, unmoving bed. He does take a moment to huff a laugh when he’s brushing his teeth, eyes fixed on the two shelves next to the bathroom mirror.

Xie Lian’s has the basics, a toothbrush and toothpaste, with a facial wash and a good sunscreen. The one above it, with Hua Cheng’s stuff, is full with his toner, moisturisers and serums and two different sunscreens. He even, optimistically, packed sheet masks!

He wonders if he’ll still be using it all by the end of this trip?

The house is dark and quiet when he leaves the bathroom, so Hua Cheng tries to be as quiet as he can once he gets back into his bedroom. He doesn’t bother drying his hair, only towels it until it’s lightly damp and then finally collapses onto the bed with what feels like the last dregs of his energy.

It’s warm and comfortable, though his legs are nearly long enough to dangle off the edge if he were to lie straight. He curls up in the middle instead, squinting at his phone screen as he checks the time and tells himself to remember to try and set up the wifi in the morning. He doubts he’ll get much sleep tonight though, given that it’s a new place and Xie Lian is essentially a total stranger.

Instead, he barely manages to keep his eyes open long enough to set an alarm for the next day.

Chapter Text

Waking up early is… easier in theory than in reality.

Hua Cheng’s heart pounds in his chest as he is shocked awake by the vibration of his phone, and it takes a moment for him to realise what is even going on. He stares at the bare wall opposite the bed in confusion, trying to figure out where the fuck he is and why his phone is vibrating before he remembers that he is on a farm, and that he chose to do something for four months that would require him to be awake at five-thirty in the morning.

Groaning, he swings his legs over the side of the bed, unable to open his eyes fully due to the grittiness in his eyeballs. He fumbles on the side table for his toothbrush and sways unsteadily, too groggy to notice anything other than the sound of movement in the kitchen as he ambles into the bathroom.

A splash of cool water later, Hua Cheng stares at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. His eyes are red from tiredness, and there are the early signs of dark circles forming under his eyes, likely from the days of travelling and a night of tossing and turning in bed. He hopes they’ll disappear in a week or so once he gets used to sleeping in a new place with a new schedule.

For now, he’ll have to put up with the slightly-bloodshot eyes. It makes his red eye look even more intimidating, and it takes effort not to reach into his washbag and take out the eyepatch he knows is still packed away at the bottom.

He hasn’t worn it for years, and although he doesn’t want to freak Xie Lian out with his eye, the sudden appearance of an eyepatch will only draw more attention to it.

He hurries through his morning routine, slathering the sunscreen in every possible exposed crevice of skin, and decides to forgo his makeup. He’s ghostly pale from years of hiding indoors from the sun when it gets too hot in the city, and maybe, just maybe, he can get a bit of a tan rather than go bright red as he usually does.

“Good morning San Lang.” Xie Lian’s whole demeanour is bright when Hua Cheng leaves the bathroom. He’s standing over a pot on the stove, and next to him on the counter are two cups, and the smell of cheap coffee feels like a balm on Hua Cheng’s tired soul.

“Morning, gege.” He pads over to the kitchen counter, noticing that the cups are filled with different things. One looks like it is filled with green tea, the other with coffee. He looks at Xie Lian, uncertain which is his, and Xie Lian pushes the cup with the coffee towards him.

“You seem like a coffee person. Sorry that it’s instant, though.”

Hua Cheng takes the cup, his brain stuck on what Xie Lian has just said.

He is a coffee person, if unwillingly. He is no stranger to three-day working frenzies, rushing to finish a mural whilst sustained purely by crap coffee and refined sugar. He knows keenly the pounding of his heart in his ears and the uncomfortable flutter in his chest from his heart beating fast after drinking so much caffeine, knows intimately the eerie early morning quiet, a bitter taste of old coffee in his throat and a sticky film over his teeth. Wishing desperately to sleep, and trying not to gag as he swallowed another coffee, and another, in order to get a mural painted in the given timeframe.

He’s become so used to the stuff now that he practically lives off it, but he wishes he didn’t. Hua Cheng wishes Xie Lian could look at him and think of him as surprising, rather than guessing his type on day one.

At the same time, he’s touched that Xie Lian has thought of him.

“Thank you. Is gege making food?” Hua Cheng asks after taking a long drink of the coffee. It’s warm and a little grainy, as though it hasn’t been stirred enough.

“I thought congee would fill you with energy for the morning.” Xie Lian says with a smile, turning back to the pot on the stove to stir it. Hua Cheng looks into the pot, mildly curious, and raises his brows when he sees the inside.

It looks more like burnt oat porridge than congee. In fact, if he had to guess, Xie Lian has put milk in it, judging by the carton on the counter.

He says nothing, content to sit at the table when Xie Lian herds him over to it before he serves up the food. He’s a bit of a whirlwind in the kitchen, with pots and plates all over the place, and he spends far too long worrying about it being overcooked without actually taking it off the heat.

It’s cute. He’s adorable.

Hua Cheng knows instinctively that he is fucked.

Xie Lian is only mildly panicking when he places the bowls on the table, with a small tray of toppings between them.

There are chopped red dates and sliced bananas, which Xie Lian takes half of each, along with chopped walnuts that he leaves to the side of his bowl on the table mat. Hua Cheng copies his lead, loading his congee with the dates and the banana and looking at how the congee is stringy on his spoon.

He stirs it and looks at the plate of chopped fruits and nuts, and something occurs to him.

“Is gege vegetarian?”

Xie Lian pauses, spoon halfway to his mouth as his eyes flicker up to look at Hua Cheng.

“Ah.” The congee and the spoon drop into the bowl, and Xie Lian looks a little sheepish. “Kind of? When I moved here I did eat meat, and I still eat some things like fish! But when I built the barn and got the animals, I was visiting my m- ah, I was in the village and someone offered me chicken baozi and I…” His cheeks pinken with a blush. “Well, I felt very guilty and I came back and hugged my hens and I haven’t had much of it since. Sorry, I know it’s silly.” Xie Lian claps his hands to his cheeks and covers his eyes, embarrassed.

“It’s not.” Hua Cheng says immediately as Xie Lian peeks out between his fingers. “It’s kind.”

It feels like it peels back another layer of who Xie Lian is, the kind of person who could raise a single chicken and then swear off eating it forever. It’s not his preference, but hell, his own eating habits are unhealthy enough, going hours in the studio with nothing to eat and then wasting his money on instant ramen and prepackaged meals.

Xie Lian looks down at his bowl, lowering his hands to his lap. He looks a little relieved that Hua Cheng has taken it so well. “We can head into the village if you want to get some things though, I don’t expect you to follow the same diet whilst we’re out here, especially if you’re not used to using up so much energy.”

Hua Cheng shakes his head and tries to smile at Xie Lian reassuringly.

“Nonsense, gege, I’ll just eat veggie too.”

“Oh, you don’t have to- I was thinking we could just open the windows, and I’ll just make sure I’m not in the room if you cook-“

“It’s fine, really. Maybe it will make me eat some more vegetables.” Hua Cheng says with a grin, and Xie Lian lets out a low puff of air with a smile.

“If San Lang is sure.” He returns to his cooled congee, picking the spoon back up and frowning when no steam rises from it when he stirs it.

“I am. I wouldn’t want gege to feel uncomfortable in his own home.” With that said, he dips his spoon into his own congee and doesn’t bother blowing on the spoon before he puts it in his mouth.

It’s…very sweet. He doesn’t think he’s ever had congee that wasn’t savoury, if only because he doesn’t make it often and when he does he’s usually making it to get rid of leftover eggs and chicken.

Fortunately, Hua Cheng has a cast iron stomach, and years of eating cold scraps from his stepmother’s trash as a child has meant that he appreciates any warm meal someone makes for him. Hua Cheng chews through the burnt rice and strange lumps, ignores the fact that the texture of the banana does not work well at all with the texture of the rice, and swallows his food with a smile.

“It’s delicious gege.” He considers mentioning that maybe Xie Lian should lower the heat next time, but then thinks that he probably hasn’t been here long enough to start criticising his cooking.

Xie Lian beams at him, and Hua Cheng vows that he will like everything this man cooks for him, burnt or raw or strangely lumpy.

“You can help yourself to anything in the fridge as well, and of course I’ll provide the food for each day, though you’re welcome to skip or make more if you want. Usually I go into the village on Sundays to get things I can’t grow here, and the grocery store there is surprisingly well-packed! You can stock up on snacks there, there’s space in each of the cupboards.”

Hua Cheng nods as he speaks, but doesn’t feel the need to say much in response. He’s fine with that, and it’s far more than he had expected - he was expecting to have to stow away a box of snacks under his bed, not be given half of the kitchen cupboards.

An alarm goes off nearby, informing them that it is now six in the morning. Hua Cheng scrapes the last of the congee into his mouth and hurriedly helps Xie Lian wash up, and then rushes back into his room to get changed whilst Xie Lian gets their needed tools ready for the day.

Hua Cheng can see him through the window, watching with a smile as he praises Ruoye for eating all of her breakfast. He must have fed her before Hua Cheng woke up. He looks so relaxed through the window, with the bamboo hat on his head and hugging the huge white fluffy Ruoye who has her paws on his shoulders, a smile on his face that could rival the sun itself.

The feeling that flutters in his chest is new and unfamiliar, but he already knows there is no point trying to fight it.

“I thought we’d start with something easy.” Xie Lian says as they descend into the fields at the bottom of the terraces. The barn looks bigger up close, and Hua Cheng realises that the areas all around the barn are fenced off, with different pathways into each individual section of the field.

Ruoye barks and runs around them, her tail smacking at their legs as she goes. Xie Lian laughs and hands Hua Cheng a huge stick that is propped up against the side of the barn, grabbing another from next to it.

Hua Cheng is baffled as to what they could possibly need the sticks for, watching in confusion as Xie Lian closes the gate behind them and then moves to open two gates along the path between the fenced-off fields.

“It’s good to rotate them every couple of days.” Xie Lian offers in explanation when he returns, as though Hua Cheng has any idea what he’s talking about.

But then Xie Lian lifts the latch over the double doors to the barn and opens the left-hand door, and Hua Cheng’s ears fill with the distinctive baa of several sheep.

Hua Cheng realises that the thrill running through him is excitement.

“What do you need me to do, gege?” He asks, looking at the stick in his hands. It’s taller than he is, and he can’t possibly figure out what Xie Lian wants him to do with it.

His mind nearly comes to a stuttering stop when Xie Lian reaches out for him and manoeuvres him around so that he is standing against the closed right-hand door, the stick held out at waist-height to stop anything from passing it on his left. His hands are gentle where they touch him, fingertips featherlight and not lingering any longer than necessary.

Hua Cheng wants them to linger, to brush against his waist or the exposed skin at his neck. What the hell is wrong with him? Years of failing to find anyone attractive, and then he’s not even been with this farmer for a whole day before he’s thinking of sharing showers and letting hands wander all over his body?

Not that Xie Lian is just any farmer, but still.

He averts his eyes from Xie Lian’s ass as he enters the barn, Ruoye at his heels, distracted from thinking on his own problems when he hears a distinctive sound of an internal gate being unlatched.

Xie Lian whistles.

Ruoye barks.

And ten sheep come running out the barn.

The first one is startled enough by Hua Cheng’s presence outside with the stick that it veers right, towards the gate Xie Lian had opened. The rest follow it, down the fenced-in path until it finds the first open exit, into the furthest section. Ruoye runs behind them, only discernible from the sheep by her long fluffy tail, using her huge body to stop any of them from turning in her direction.

Hua Cheng follows, assuming that they’ll need to be locked into the field to prevent them grazing where they shouldn’t. Ruoye darts out after all the sheep have positioned themselves far away from the gate, and Hua Cheng feels ten pairs of eyes watching him as he latches it shut.

Ruoye’s tail smacks against his calves, and when he looks down at her, she looks at him in expectation.

He huffs out a laugh as he gives her the head pat that she so clearly wants, and she runs back off in the direction of the barn with Hua Cheng behind her.

When he steps through the door, Xie Lian is waiting with two wicker baskets, one of which he hands to Hua Cheng.

“Here, San Lang! We’re going to check on the chickens now and let them out, be careful where you step.”

“Are we collecting eggs?” He asks, taking the chance to properly look around the large barn.

It’s sectioned off inside, with the sheep clearly living in the larger, open pen on the left. On the right is a huge chicken coop, nearly eight-foot high with internal heat lamps and a tiered, wooden structure that serves as the roosting bars for the chickens. It’s probably twenty-foot long in length, and the walls are all made from panels of wood and a thick mesh that allows Hua Cheng a view right inside.

It’s impressive.

Lined along the far wall of the barn, within the coop, are more than a dozen nesting boxes. On the floor, staring up at the two humans and looking quite unimpressed at being kept inside for too long, are twenty-four hens.

“We are. You’re lucky San Lang, I gave the coop a deep clean last week and its weekly clean yesterday. Let me just let the girls out and we can go in.”

There are locks at the top and bottom of the door into the coop that Xie Lian slides open before pulling the door open. The chickens flood out, and they make so much noise as they leave that Hua Cheng winces.

Still, he can appreciate that despite the loudness, they’re pretty birds. Some are speckled, others a contrast of colours blending into each other, and the rest are deep reddish brown. Some of them watch from the entryway to the barn as Xie Lian and Hua Cheng enter the coop, curious about the newcomer and his business in their home.

They take it in turns going into the nesting boxes, until they finish with seven eggs in Hua Cheng’s basket and ten in Xie Lian’s.

At Hua Cheng’s questioning look when he counts the eggs, Xie Lian smiles.

“Most of them lay about five a week, but some of the older girls don’t or have stopped completely. When they do I usually just get another one and let the older ones enjoy life with the rest of the hens and the sheep. These are all fairly young, though. My last old girl didn't make it through the winter."

“You don’t sell them on?” Hua Cheng asks, and then cringes at his own stupidity. The man went vegetarian because he felt bad eating chicken after owning hens, of course he’s not going to sell them for meat!

Thankfully, Xie Lian doesn’t think anything of the question. “No, I’d miss them too much.”

Hua Cheng’s heart does a funny little fluttery thing again, which only becomes more noticeable when they leave the barn and one of the hens comes over to Xie Lian, clucking all the way. Xie Lian lowers his basket to the floor and bends down to scoop her up, and Hua Cheng is greeted with the fucking adorable sight of Xie Lian cuddling a hen.

The hen even has her face buried in his neck!

Hua Cheng stares, utterly mesmerised, until he feels a nudge against his leg and looks down to find a deep red hen clucking at his feet.

Next to him, holding the chicken to his shoulder like it’s a baby, Xie Lian laughs. “Aw, San Lang, Xiao Bao would like it if you petted her.”

Hua Cheng looks down at the chicken and tells himself to be brave, it’s harmless, it’s just a chicken. Still, as he bends down to pick it up he feels awkward, trying to balance his hands beneath her and feeling unsteady as he lifts, one hand below her and the other on her back.

Xie Lian smiles at him all the while, even when he awkwardly hugs the chicken to his chest and feels her settle and relax in his hold. Hua Cheng returns his smile, before looking down at Xiao Bao and slowly, carefully, running his hand down her back and over her wings.

“There you go.” Xie Lian says, his voice a soft croon. “She likes you.”

Hua Cheng must squeeze her a little too tightly at seeing the look of approval on Xie Lian’s face, for a moment later the chicken clucks and leaps out of his arms to the floor. Xie Lian bursts out laughing, only screeching a little when the hen in his arms does the same.

“Oh San Lang, your face!” Xie Lian laughs, loud and free, and San Lang feels the fluttery thing yet again as he bends down to pick up the eggs.

“Gege is so cruel, making fun of me.” He makes sure to shake his head sadly, only grinning when Xie Lian makes a wounded noise.

“I would never!” He closes the door of the barn, still grinning, then looks up the hill at the farm. “We’ll take these back, and then we can get started on reinforcing some of the terraces.”

Oh. That sounds sweaty.

(Maybe they’ll have to take their shirts off, a treacherous part of Hua Cheng’s mind supplies.)

“What do you do with all these eggs?” Hua Cheng asks as they approach the farmhouse, trying not to sound obviously out of breath after climbing the hill.

“I take what I need for the week, and then the rest go in the honesty box!” Xie Lian sounds a little excited as he leads them into the courtyard and grabs a sizeable wooden box from the corner. He takes it back outside and puts it on the flat surface of a large rock, grinning at Hua Cheng as he opens the door on the front.

The box and the door are shaped like an egg.

Inside are two shelves, one filled with colourful egg cartons and the other with an empty wicker bowl and a small money box in the shape of a chicken. On the curved outside of the box is a little old, weathered chalkboard with ‘hen of the week’ scribbled on it in neat writing, only the sun-faded photograph is clearly a off-centre, slightly-blurry polaroid of all the hens in the chicken coop.

“Hen of the week?” He asks, eyebrow raised, and Xie Lian blushes.

“I started it so that the villagers would have something cute to see when they collect eggs, but all the girls work so hard I couldn’t choose just one.” He scratches his cheek, laughing awkwardly at Hua Cheng’s bemused look.

“It’s cute, gege. But people come all the way out here for eggs?”

“Well, the ones in the village store take a while to get there, but these are fresh every day. Usually the villagers send their kids every day to check if I have any, though there are always less on Mondays as I take what I need. Oh, and on Sundays, I take them into the village myself.”

Xie Lian takes one of the eggs from Hua Cheng’s basket and all ten from his, and puts them in the little wicker bowl inside the honesty box. “I still have six from last week.” He explains to Hua Cheng, taking his six remaining eggs from him and heading back into the courtyard.

“That’s a lot of eggs gege expects to eat in a week.”

“Well, I’m worried twelve might not be enough! Now that there's two of us, we might go through them a lot faster. It’s not like I can't just grab extra eggs on a morning if we need them, though.”

“Gege has it all figured out.”

Xie Lian laughs, putting the basket in a shaded area of the courtyard.

“Not always. Last year there was a really bad storm and I couldn’t get into the village for a week, but I was still going down each day to check on the girls. I ate nothing but eggs that week and then didn’t eat them for a month or two after.”

Hua Cheng cocks his head, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“Would they not have saved until the next week?” He asks, and is immediately rewarded with Xie Lian flushing a deep shade of red.

“I didn’t think! The weather was bad and I ah, didn’t want their efforts to go to waste.”

Hua Cheng can’t help but laugh, and laugh, until Xie Lian huffs and walks off in the direction of some buckets with a begrudging smile on his face.

It’s barely even nine o’clock, and Hua Cheng is exhausted.

The days of travel, followed by a day of light work on the farm, combined with the slight time difference, has physically worn him out. They’ve barely sat on the couch after tidying away the pots and pans from dinner, and yet he can feel the fight to keep his eyes open. His legs and arms ache from the constant movement of reinforcing the terraces with wet mud, and he won’t forget any time soon the dejected feeling in him when he’d realised they’d only done a quarter of them in the end, and Xie Lian had grinned and proclaimed that we’ve done so much today!

Three more days of it and he might just collapse. He’s curled up in the corner of the couch, head lolled onto the back, staring at the ceiling and trying desperately to listen to the TV. Xie Lian sits across from him, a soft, white knitted blanket thrown over his legs, but he’s reading a book on his e-reader rather than watching the TV.

Hua Cheng glances over at him, and he thinks that Xie Lian looks beautiful, softer in the dim light. He holds the e-reader in one hand, head tilted down to look at it as he chews the thumbnail of his other hand. He looks engrossed in what he’s reading, his black hair curling against his neck where it is damp from his shower. Ruoye is curled up at his feet, her heavy head keeping his legs still where she rests it on his foot.

Every now and then he stops chewing his nail to push his glasses up his nose, and Hua Cheng tries not to be visibly affected by the sight. When he’d come out of the shower to find Xie Lian on the couch wearing a pair of large, circular framed glasses, he’d nearly expired on the spot.

Gods, he feels like a horny teenager. He has spent years never feeling any sort of sexual or physical attraction to anyone else, but something about Xie Lian’s easy conversation and cute smile has dragged Hua Cheng’s sexual awakening out of him. It didn’t even resist, just walked on out the second it saw Xie Lian smiling at him from beneath a straw hat.

Hua Cheng shifts on the couch to make himself more comfortable, half-turning his body into the cushions and resting his cheek against the back of the couch. It ends up with him facing Xie Lian, who doesn’t seem to mind if the distracted smile he gives Hua Cheng is any indication.

Not that Hua Cheng can sit and watch him. Within minutes he feels the heavy fog of sleep beginning to descend on him, and once he starts yawning he seemingly cannot stop. It becomes harder to keep his eyes open and on his surroundings, and at one point he’s almost certain he drops forwards and ends up with his face smooshed into Xie Lian’s shoulder.

He sleeps fairly peacefully for an hour or so, until he wakes alone in a darkened room and with no idea what is going on. The blanket Xie Lian was wearing is draped over his body, and Xie Lian has somehow managed to manoeuvre his sleepy self into stretching out on the couch before leaving.

Touched, Hua Cheng rolls up the blanket and sits up, ready to finally go to bed and get some sleep.

It doesn’t escape him, however, that Xie Lian never tried to move him when he’d fallen asleep on his shoulder.

Chapter Text

The next morning, after a breakfast of raw eggs over rice (which is a little oily, but otherwise creamy and nice, except Hua Cheng is pretty sure Xie Lian was trying to fry them), Xie Lian leads him out into the courtyard and points to the two large sacks that he had been carrying that first evening.

“Are you comfortable carrying one of those, San Lang?” He asks, grabbing one of them with one hand and slinging it over his shoulder. The muscles in his arm flex at the movement, and Hua Cheng averts his eyes.

“Of course, gege.” Hua Cheng confidently nods, reaching out to wrap the fabric at the top of the sack around his hand.

He yanks it up, and nearly wrenches his arm out of his socket.

Pain shoots up his arm like a lightning bolt, sharp and sudden, and he releases the sack on instinct. Xie Lian is at his side immediately, hand on his wrist and visually checking him over.

“San Lang! Are you okay?”

Hua Cheng tries valiantly to fight off the pink that he can feel burning across his cheekbones, but has no such luck.

The sack is heavy! What the hell does Xie Lian have in them? It’s not so heavy that Hua Cheng can’t lift it at all, but given the ease with which Xie Lian had carried two of them, Hua Cheng had expecting it to be far lighter than it is.

“It was just heavier than I was expecting, gege, I’ll be fine.” He tries again, far more careful this time, and copies Xie Lian’s movement to sling it over his shoulder. “Is there anything interesting inside these sacks?”

Xie Lian nods, leading the way out of the courtyard.

“We’ll be planting some main crop potatoes after we’ve let the hens and the sheep out. I figured it was easier to take the potatoes down now, sort out the animals, and then bring the compost up on our way back.”

Hua Cheng follows him, and doesn’t fail to notice that Xie Lian seems very relaxed and not at all bothered about the heavy sack. Hua Cheng doesn’t know how much they weigh, but he’d guess twenty-five kilos at a minimum.

Which again, not that heavy, but Xie Lian had been carrying two.

Which means Hua Cheng now can’t stop looking at his arms and trying to gauge his strength, as if Xie Lian’s biceps alone could tell him how much they can lift.

As they reach the steps down the middle of the terraces, Hua Cheng glances up to Xie Lian’s face, and immediately looks away when he realises Xie Lian is watching him with amusement out of the corner of his eye.

“Gege, how do you know which side to put upwards?”

They’ve sorted out the chickens and sheep, and Hua Cheng had shovelled an unruly amount of compost into a wheelbarrow whilst Xie Lian held it steady, and they’ve deposited all of the eggs into the honesty box and grabbed their water and finally started planting potatoes.

It has led to Hua Cheng kneeling in the dirt, his layered hair escaping the tiny ponytail at the back of his neck that he’d just managed to scrape it into. The trowel in his hand doesn’t dig nearly as fast as he’d like it to, and his depth perception has always been a little skewed in his red eye.

As someone who has spent his entire life overthinking, it’s proving difficult to be certain he’s doing this right.

He’s finding it more difficult than he should, really.

Which is ridiculous. It’s planting potatoes. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian had spent an hour preparing the ground of the terrace, sifting the loose soil into multiple distinct trenches, and then Xie Lian had put one bag of potatoes at the end of the terrace and said to plant one every eight inches or so.

It should be easy.

Xie Lian stands up from his own planting and heads over, kneeling down in the soil next to him, close enough that their hats bump against each other.

“Do you have your compost?” He asks, reaching out to the small bucket full of seed potatoes that is on the other side of the small trench. Hua Cheng nods, grabbing the larger bucket of compost and putting it next to the bucket of seed potatoes. “Good, now grab a handful of it.”

Hua Cheng shoves his hand in the bucket, and almost immediately wrinkles his nose.

“The compost smells really bad, gege.”

“Hm? Oh! That’ll be the sheep dung.”

Hua Cheng stares at him, waiting for the half-a-beat before Xie Lian laughs at him, prods him in the side and tells him it was a joke.

It doesn’t come.

Hua Cheng has his hand in the compost up to his wrist.

He fights the instinctual urge to rip his hand out of the bucket, instead closing his eyes for a moment before he exhales and scoops out a handful of the compost.

Xie Lian starts laughing at him.

So far, Xie Lian has had cause to laugh at him about ten times each day.

“Ah, it’s not fresh, San Lang! I put it in the compost pile about six months ago? It’ll have broken down, don’t worry.” He laughs again, reaching for Hua Cheng’s hand and guiding him to drop the compost into the little trench.

They mix it around, their fingers catching on each other’s for a second, and then Xie Lian sits back and grabs a seed potato.

“Now,” he says, leaning in close enough that his breath skitters across Hua Cheng’s cheeks. “See all these?” He points to the green and purple shoots breaking out of the skin.

“Mn.”

“You want to try and put as many of these facing up as you can. But it doesn’t matter if you get it wrong, because the strongest ones are going to sprout through first anyway.”

For some reason Hua Cheng can’t quite figure out - though he certainly isn’t complaining - Xie Lian takes Hua Cheng’s hand and brings his fingers together to hold the seed potato, and then guides his hand down to press the potato into the mix of compost and topsoil.

“That seems too easy.” Hua Cheng says, a grin teasing at his lips. Xie Lian shrugs, returning his smile and not seeming to care that their hats are bumping again.

“It’s really not as hard as you’re thinking, San Lang. All you have to do now is bury it beneath all the topsoil.” He leans over to the other side of the small trench, gathering the topsoil from each side in equal amounts and then covering the seed potato with it. “And now we cover it up for about six inches.”

Hua Cheng copies his movements, eager to please and keep Xie Lian’s lovely smile on his face.

They pile the soil from the edges on top of the potato, Hua Cheng scooping it up and patting it down until it is buried beneath the loose soil. Their hands brush against each other, fingers dirty from the slight dampness of the soil and the compost, and then Xie Lian presses his own hands down atop Hua Cheng’s to firm up the tiny mound.

His hands are warm and slightly rough, the dry skin of the calluses on his palms catching on Hua Cheng’s sore knuckles. The touch is electrifying, making his hands tingle and his heart rate begin to speed up. Hua Cheng stares down at the buried potato, trying to ignore the multitude of feeling in his stomach.

“You got it?” Xie Lian asks, his lips turned up in amusement. Hua Cheng nods, and feels bereft when Xie Lian lets go of his hands.

“Thanks, gege.”

They continue working through the morning, with Xie Lian occasionally coming over to check his progress. By the time they finish it’s just after noon, and Xie Lian briefly disappears up to the farmhouse for a few minutes before he returns with their water bottles refilled and two plastic tubs containing cold, spicy noodles.

They sit on the path in the middle of the terraces, looking down over the farm. Hua Cheng thinks he can make out a couple of chickens playing in the dirt bath, and there’s almost certainly one or two of them hiding from the sun in the shadow cast by Ruoye’s body as she lays in the centre of the pen.

“These noodles are delicious gege. Very spicy.” Hua Cheng comments as he eats them, mindful of the fact that they’re very brown and very chewy.

“Oh.” Xie Lian frowns, looking closely at the noodles dangling from his chopsticks. “They were supposed to be peanutty.”

“They have a very unique flavour.” Hua Cheng says before he stuffs more of the noodles into his mouth to stop himself from saying anything else that would upset Xie Lian. The man seems pleased, though, that Hua Cheng isn’t criticising them, at least, and when he takes a mouthful from his own tub he doesn’t seem to find the taste unpleasant.

Hua Cheng looks around for something to change the subject.

“I thought if you planted potatoes once, you’d never get rid of them.” He finally says, cocking his head in the direction of the field they’ve just planted.

“Yeah, you need to dig up as much of the topsoil as you can to be sure they’re gone. I usually rake it all back and sift it before putting it back.”

On his own? Hua Cheng feels exhausted just thinking about it.

“Gege, that must take days.”

Laughing, Xie Lian shrugs. “It keeps me busy.”

He reaches for his water bottle and takes a long drink. The movement exposes the long line of his throat, letting Hua Cheng watch as it bobs up and down. A little droplet of water leaks out the side of his mouth and slides down his chin, over his jaw, and down into his clavicle.

He doesn’t know if it’s the heat, beating down on their backs and making his entire body feel warm and on-edge, or if it’s the brightness of the sun making the world a little fuzzy, so that the sight of that droplet running down Xie Lian’s skin becomes the clearest thing he can see, but Hua Cheng…

Hua Cheng wants to lick it off.

Instead, he unscrews the lid off his water bottle and dumps it out over his face and hair.

“San Lang?!”

The shock of it is enough to stamp down on his growing erection, as his hardening dick makes a sad retreat.

“I’m just getting a little warm, gege.” Hua Cheng leans away to wring the water out of his hair, and wonders if it’s the heat of the sun, his mortification, or his own sunburn that is making the water evaporate on his face so quickly.

His noodles are now soaked, and he kind of wishes he hadn’t removed his hat to get a bit of wind at the back of his neck, because now his head is warm and wet. He’s no longer hard though, meaning he can give Xie Lian a genuine smile when the other man squints sceptically at him.

“Hm. You do look a little warm, San Lang.” Xie Lian reaches out to press the back of his hand against Hua Cheng’s forehead. Hua Cheng can feel his dick getting hopeful again, and he squirms a little under Xie Lian’s touch. “Maybe we should do some work in the orchard this afternoon.”

The orchard? Where the fuck is the orchard? How big is this farm?

Seeing the look on his face, Xie Lian laughs again.

“It’s not on the main farm, it’s through the trees on the west side of the area with the sheep pens and the barn. See down there?” He points and, sure enough, Hua Cheng thinks he can see a gap in the trees where a path would be. “It used to be a lot bigger, but my grandmother didn’t bother with it and I don’t know where the original boundaries are. It’s a little wild now, but I do take care of the trees and the fruit shrubs.”

Hua Cheng’s eyes widen a little at that information. Xie Lian’s grandmother used to own the farm? That doesn’t seem to make sense, given that when Xie Lian was living his life as an idol in Xianle, all the media could focus on was that he was the heir to a family that had produced a long line of successful businessmen. There’s no way his grandparents owned a secret farm out in the middle of literally nowhere.

“I didn’t realise gege inherited the farm.” He says, careful of his words as he continues eating his now soggy noodles. They haven’t addressed the fact that Hua Cheng clearly recognised Xie Lian when they first met, and he knows that there are some things that he will want to keep to himself. Hua Cheng can only hope Xie Lian will one day trust him enough to tell him, but until then he doesn’t want to push.

Xie Lian’s smile is a little tight.

“I didn’t inherit it, either.” His eyes scan the bottom of the terraces, his gaze clearly fixed on Ruoye in the distance. “Ah, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you someday.”

Hua Cheng nods, and they go back to their noodles in silence. It isn’t an awkward silence, though Hua Cheng gets the feeling that Xie Lian might be assessing what he knows of Hua Cheng given the way he keeps looking over at him during their meal.

The first Sunday that Hua Cheng is at the farm is the first day that he gets to turn off his morning alarm and sleep as much as he needs.

To his frustration, he still wakes up at around eight in the morning, far earlier than he would have slept if he were at his apartment in Xianle. He doesn't feel too tired though, and with an exaggerated groan he forces himself out of bed and out of his bedroom, not even thinking to change into normal clothes before he pads out into the living area.

The smell of the cheap coffee is familiar now, but there's no scent of rice mixed in with it, and when he looks over at the kitchen it's to find Xie Lian standing at the countertop and looking down at a battered notepad. He has his thumb lifted to his lips, absent-mindedly biting on his nail as he reads.

"Morning, gege." Hua Cheng says to break him out of his thoughts, reaching around him for the cup of coffee on the counter. Xie Lian jumps a little in surprise and pushes the cup closer to him, and his smile is teasing as he looks over at him.

"Morning San Lang! I thought you'd be up earlier." He says, watching Hua Cheng as he takes a sip of his coffee. It's lukewarm, meaning it's been sat on the counter a while.

"I thought I'd be up later. Gege’s routine is ruining my body clock." Hua Cheng takes a seat at the table, feeling a little strange and off-kilter. It takes a moment for him to realise what is wrong: Ruoye is not sitting there ready to put her heavy head on his lap, and a glance around the room shows him she's not in the farmhouse.

He looks over at Xie Lian, ready to ask, and then notices the basket of eggs on the counter.

"Gege went out this morning without me?" The thought is…disappointing, as though he's let Xie Lian down by being lazy and staying in bed.

Xie Lian doesn't seem annoyed though, only indulgent. "I was going to wait, only they really should all be let out by seven, and I didn't want to wake San Lang up. Ruoye and I managed it, don't worry."

Of course they managed it - Xie Lian has been doing this on his own for years, Hua Cheng reminds himself. And he really had needed to sleep.

Still. 

"Will gege wake me up next time?"

Xie Lian laughs, a sweet indulgent sound as though he's seen Ruoye do something clever.

"If you like. Little Xiao Bao looked very sad that you weren't there this morning."

Hua Cheng groans into his cup at the obvious delight in Xie Lian's tone. Xiao Bao, the deep-red hen, seems to have imprinted on him - it's the only explanation he can find for the hen pecking him every morning until he lifts her up and pets her down her back and over her wings. He's not convinced she actually likes it, seeing as she flies out of his arms after a few seconds anyway, but Xie Lian clearly finds the whole thing adorable.

And she is kind of cute.

Kind of.

"Does gege have any plans for today?" He asks, eager to change the subject to something less embarrassing than overly-loving chickens. Xie Lian's look is knowing, but he lets it go.

"I was thinking we could go into the village? I have some things to do there and it'll be nice for you to get familiar with everyone." 

Hua Cheng nods, oddly thrilled by the chance to spend some time with Xie Lian that isn’t farming or him collapsing on the couch at the end of the day.

“When do you want to leave?”

“We can go after you’ve gotten ready.” He smiles, a teasing lilt to his expression. “Unless San Lang wants to go into the village in his pyjamas.”

“No thanks, gege.” Hua Cheng finishes the last of his coffee, even the grainy dregs at the very end, and gets up from the table. “Are we walking in?” He asks as he stretches with a yawn.

There’s a moment of silence where it seems as though no answer is forthcoming, and when he looks down at Xie Lian…

The other man averts his eyes to the floor, a blush flooding his cheeks.

He’d done it quickly, but not quickly enough. Hua Cheng had seen Xie Lian’s gaze locked on the way his shirt had ridden up during his stretch, eyes on his pale skin and the visible red band of his boxers as he’d moved.

Hua Cheng feels torn between euphoria and panic that Xie Lian has decided to eye him up when he’s in his pyjamas of all things. Sure, it’s just an old t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, but it’s hardly the most flattering thing in his wardrobe.

“Gege?” He prompts after the silence has gone on a little too long, and Xie Lian looks up so quickly that Hua Cheng is surprised he hasn’t pulled anything in his neck.

“I thought we could take the truck! I’ll drive into the village, aha, as it is pretty far if you’re already tired.” He isn’t quite making eye contact with Hua Cheng, his gaze stubbornly fixed over his shoulder instead.

“Okay gege, I won’t be long.” He says with a knowing grin, something that only makes Xie Lian’s blush deepen in colour.

At least they’re taking the truck into the village, he thinks as he gathers his things and gets ready. It has to be better than walking, right?

Chapter Text

This is the first time he's actually looked at the truck in broad daylight, and it looks…bad.

Hua Cheng has never really seen a vehicle that could be described as a bucket of bolts before, but this one is a near thing. It was probably white, once upon a time, but the mud and dirt and the paint bleached from the sun has left it a strange colour, brilliant white in some places and a grimy yellow in others. The space around the wheels is caked in dirt, and he's fairly sure it shouldn't be listing to one side the way it is given that it's parked on a flat surface. It looks like it will have a suspicious rattle once it starts to move.

Xie Lian walks over to the driver's side and has what seems like a genuine fight with the keyhole, but he doesn't look like it is a strange occurrence, and it finally unlocks after he wiggles it in the lock a few times. 

"Gege must have had this car for a long time." Hua Cheng says as he climbs into the passenger seat, removing his hat and placing it in his lap. The inside is very clean, though he has a feeling that is more because it is barely used than anything else.

"Oh, I actually bought it last year!" He leans over his steering wheel to put the key in the ignition, and the engine takes three loud attempts to start before it flares to life beneath them.

Hua Cheng had expected it to take longer, honestly. There's a loud clunk as Xie Lian puts it into gear (and amazing, it's a manual transmission, not auto), another clunk when he releases the handbrake, and then the truck is inching towards the road at the top of the hill.

And ah, Hua Cheng was correct about the rattle.

The truck lists to the side a bit, something which admittedly alarms Hua Cheng when he looks out the window and realises the ground is level, but Xie Lian doesn’t seem concerned as he drives. The road feels far bumpier than it did when they came down it in the cart, and Xie Lian chatters away the whole ride into the village. He doesn’t acknowledge any of the bumps and clanging noises the truck is making, and Hua Cheng relaxes a little in his seat after the fourth or fifth time they seem to hit a bump on the flat road.

When he pulls up on the outskirts of the village, something else makes a strange metallic ping and Hua Cheng’s eyes widen a little.

Xie Lian cocks his head at the steering wheel as though it will provide the answer to the strange noise, and then shrugs it off and turns off the engine.

What an interesting drive this has been.

They clamber out of the truck, Hua Cheng stretching his long legs when he’s out as Xie Lian reaches into the back of the truck bed and grabs the basket of all the remaining eggs from the week. Hua Cheng has to admit to being surprised to find that most days, even though he has been too busy to actually see anyone approaching the farm, the egg honesty box has been empty come nightfall.

“We’ll head over into the grocery store and get rid of these eggs first.” Xie Lian says with a smile, and Hua Cheng hums in agreement and follows him into the village.

The small grocery store is surprisingly well-stocked for a village so rural. There’s plenty of the basics, rice and noodles and fresh fruit and vegetables, but there’s also a good range of snacks and cooking ingredients. Xie Lian grabs some cartons of packaged tofu out of a fridge that looks like it could be older than him. 

“All the villages get a delivery from the closest big town, usually about once a week. We get ours on a Sunday.” He explains, carefully putting them in the basket with the eggs. “Oh! One of the bigger villages has a market every weekend, we should take you there one day so you can see it. It’s fun.”

“I’d like that, gege.” And he would, he thinks. He’s really enjoying getting to spend all this time with Xie Lian, getting to be a small part of his life like this. He’d had a crush on him before, sure, but this feels heavier and more significant, even though actually being with Xie Lian feels like the easiest thing in the world.

Xie Lian hands the eggs over to the friendly lady behind the counter, and receives what is probably no more than five percent of Hua Cheng’s hourly rate in return. 

He slides the notes into his wallet, waving goodbye to the lady before dragging Hua Cheng outside.

“Come on, I want you to meet the girl who works next door. She’s nice and we’ll be doing our yearly work for her tomorrow.”

Before Hua Cheng can question it, Xie Lian takes his wrist and pulls him into the tiny little souvenir store next door to the grocery store.

It’s probably no deeper than five or six metres, with a little counter and a money box sitting atop it. The girl on the stool behind it is working on something in her lap, but she looks up when they enter and immediately shoves it down behind the counter.

When she recognises Xie Lian and smiles, her posture relaxes a bit, and Hua Cheng can see what looks like a roll of purple yarn on her lap. Her eyes lower to the counter when she realises Xie Lian is accompanied, and her body seems to go a little tense, as though she’s expecting him to rebuke her.

“Ban Yue, this is my friend San Lang. He’s working with me on the farm this year! San Lang, this is Ban Yue. She buys the wool from the sheep every year.” Xie Lian gives her an encouraging smile, but it’s only at the mention of the sheep wool that she perks up a little, lifting her eyes from the counter to look him in the eye.

“Will you still deliver it next weekend?” She asks, her eyes briefly flickering over to glance at Hua Cheng.

“Of course! San Lang and I will be shearing them tomorrow.”

Hua Cheng startles, his eyes widening. They’ll be what? 

They’re shearing the sheep? Hua Cheng, who has no experience of sharp objects near naturally-nervous animals, is going to be allowed near them to shear them? He hasn’t the first idea how it works, but he has a feeling that this is going to end in disaster.

“What do you do with the wool?” Hua Cheng asks, his voice calm and quiet. He has a feeling that if he puts any volume in his tone the girl might flinch away.

“I make blankets. And shawls.” She lifts the item that she had hidden away so quickly when they entered, and Hua Cheng raises his eyebrows when he sees a pair of fine knitting needles and the beginnings of a soft, well-made shawl.

“Do you get a lot of people buying them?” 

A light pink blush makes an appearance on her cheeks, and she doesn’t answer. Xie Lian grins.

“You should be proud, Ban Yue. San Lang, Ban Yue used to sell them here for the odd tourist that we get, but her boyfriend made a website for her, and now she sells them all around the world.” 

Hua Cheng raises his brows, a little impressed. “They’re popular?”

“Mn.” Ban Yue nods. “People like that the wool comes from a rural farm.”

It makes sense, he supposes. Hell, it’s probably the sort of thing he would buy himself if he’d seen it online, bragging about it being made with rural sheep wool purely for the opportunity to rile He Xuan up.

“Can I get one? Before I go.” Hua Cheng says, because not only is winding He Xuan up hilarious, but Xie Lian seems fond of the girl, and he thinks Xie Lian would approve of him being nice.

Ban Yue’s eyes widen, but she nods. “I’ll bring some in for you to look at.” She says, still looking a little uncertain, but far more relaxed than she had been earlier.

“Ah San Lang, you could remember our little village every time you wear it.” Xie Lian says, clearly pleased.

“That’s what I thought, gege.”

Xie Lian beams at him before he turns to Ban Yue again and begins discussing the movement of the sheared sheep wool to the village (and Hua Cheng cannot believe he’s going to be shearing sheep ), so Hua Cheng looks around the store and finds a display on the wall with some postcards on it. 

There’s only one for the village itself, which Hua Cheng deems too risky to send, so he grabs one which has a pretty photograph of the nearby mountain range and the name of the province instead. He debates on whether he should send it to He Xuan (to piss him off) or to Yin Yu (who might reluctantly appreciate the photo), before deciding that it’s too nice an image to risk He Xuan throwing it in the trash.

There’s a pen on the countertop that he takes, and begins writing down Yin Yu’s office address on the back of the postcard. He won’t attach a message - his assistant will understand. Besides, what the hell would he write? Wish you were here?

Hua Cheng smirks. That might be a good message to send to He Xuan just to piss him off more.

“Ah, San Lang, are you sketching?” Xie Lian asks as he leans over to look at Hua Cheng’s penmanship. 

Hua Cheng can’t help the grimace that twists his lips as he looks down at the address. It’s not that bad, surely? 

He sighs. No, it really is that bad.

“Oh.” Xie Lian says when the realisation hits, and he suddenly looks very guilty. “San Lang has such interesting handwriting.”

“Gege doesn’t have to lie.” Hua Cheng makes sure he sounds very sad when he speaks, and has to resist the urge to laugh when Xie Lian crowds closer, clearly alarmed and feeling bad.

“No, San Lang! Look, it’s very unique, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone write the characters for Xianle like that before-” He pauses when Hua Cheng starts laughing. “You’re teasing me.” 

Hua Cheng grins, leaning in a little closer so that his shoulder bumps Xie Lian’s. “Sorry, gege. I couldn’t resist.”

He does sketch a little donkey and a cart, along with two little men sitting in the back of it. He tries to depict the potato sacks too, but given that he’s using a shitty ballpoint pen, they don’t look too great. Still, it’ll do, and he makes a mental note to ask Xie Lian where he can post it whilst the other man is finishing up with Ban Yue.

“Do you want to give that to Mrs Luo in the grocery store? She can post it for you, I just - I have a quick errand I need to run.” Xie Lian suggests with a smile, and Hua Cheng nods. He’s a little curious what Xie Lian’s errand is, but it’s no hardship to return to the friendly old lady in the store.

He grabs some snacks whilst he’s in there, and it takes longer than he’d thought since Mrs Luo asks him a lot of questions about himself. He’d suspect an ulterior motive, but then she waves him off with a comment about how nice it is that Xie Lian has someone his own age in the village, and Hua Cheng wonders again just how lonely he had been before Hua Cheng came along to keep him company each day.

As he wanders around, exploring whilst he waits for Xie Lian, he realises that the village is bigger than he thought it was. He can see streets that he’d missed when he first came through, ones that presumably wind through behind the main street. He chooses the side street that’s directly opposite the grocery store, and gets roughly halfway down it before a door to one of the houses further down opens and Xie Lian steps out. 

He’s speaking quietly to a middle aged lady who follows him out, a warm smile on her face as she presses a basket into his hands to go along with the one he already holds. She pats his cheek as he smiles and says something to her, presumably a thank you. Neither of them notice Hua Cheng as Xie Lian lets the woman hug him, though his hug back is a little awkward because of the baskets in his hand.

It’s only when the woman has gone back inside the house that Xie Lian turns and notices Hua Cheng in the street, and he hurries down to join him.

“San Lang! Ah, I’m sorry I took so long. But look, we’ve got some mushroom baozi for lunch!”

He lifts the cloth that is hiding the contents of the second basket to show Hua Cheng some dimpled, slightly flat buns that look like they could be leaking a bit of the filling out of the sides. They smell good, but they definitely don’t smell of mushrooms.

“They look really good, gege.”

Xie Lian dips his head and smiles fondly down at the basket. “They are.”

“Do you get given food by her often?” He asks, curious to know more.

“Oh, yes! All the aunties in the village send me food, I think they think I’m starving myself, working all day at the farm.” Xie Lian speaks quickly, as if trying to come up with an innocent excuse for why the woman has just freely given him some food. But Hua Cheng knows better - of course all the aunties are plying him with food, hoping he returns to make a good impression on their daughters!

“Gege must be the focus of all the aunties in the village, wanting their daughters to marry him.” Hua Cheng teases, trying to push down the sudden flash of jealousy he feels at the notion.

Xie Lian coughs into his fist, his eyes wide. “Ah, I really don’t think so.”

Hua Cheng turns to look at him and walks backwards a few steps, delighting in his reddening cheeks and nervous look. “Nonsense, gege. That lady would love to have you as a son-in-law, I could tell. She wouldn’t just give any young man such tasty looking baozi on the regular.”

Xie Lian’s laugh comes out strange, slightly strangled with a higher pitch to it as he laughs unconvincingly.

“Aha, no, she wouldn’t.”

Hua Cheng doesn’t push any further, sensing that Xie Lian feels a little awkward, and they amble through the village with easy, simple conversation until they find somewhere to sit and share the buns. 

They split every one, and Hua Cheng realises he must have become accustomed to Xie Lian’s cooking, because the buns don’t taste quite right but they’re tasty nevertheless.

“Psst, San Lang.” Xie Lian’s voice, a quiet whisper, pulls Hua Cheng from his slumber later that night. He opens his eyes groggily, wondering if something has happened. Xie Lian’s hand is on his bicep, gently shaking him awake, and in the dim light of Hua Cheng’s bedroom he can see that Xie Lian is still in his pyjamas.

“Gege?” Hua Cheng pushes himself up in the bed, yawning as he does so. The sheet pools around his waist, and the cool night air on his exposed chest makes a shiver run through him. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, ah…” Xie Lian pauses, seeming a little distracted, before he perks up again. “I’m sorry to wake you up, I just - I wanted you to see something. Grab your sketchbook.”

Hua Cheng stumbles out of bed, fumbling around on the desk for his sketchbook and cellphone and grabbing his hoodie off the back of the door as he follows Xie Lian into the living room. The light on the fan in the kitchen is on, but the rest of the lights are off, and Hua Cheng doesn't think the living room looks any different.

"What did gege want to show me?" He asks, his voice a whisper in the darkened room.

"The stars." He unlocks the door, pausing for a moment as Ruoye's dark shape on the sofa perks up at the sound, and they hear the weight of her heavy body as she jumps off the sofa and stands between them. 

"Does gege think I haven't seen them before?" Hua Cheng teases, startling a little at the feel of Ruoye's wet nose pressing into the palm of his hand. He gives her a gentle scritch behind her ears as Xie Lian throws him a knowing smile.

"I think you haven't seen them like this." He opens the door and steps out into the cooler evening air, Ruoye weaving between their legs to get out ahead of them. Hua Cheng follows him, expecting it to be dark, expecting the twinkle of a few stars and the moon, no different to the view he gets from his apartment in Xianle.

Instead, when he looks up, his mouth falls open.

It’s beautiful. 

He’s seen images of the Milky Way before, of course, but he’d always assumed most of those images were digitally altered. This is something he truly hasn’t seen before, and he stares up at it in awe as Xie Lian grabs his wrist and pulls him out of the courtyard until they can sit in the grass out the front of the farmhouse. 

“Gege…” 

“It’s good, right?” Xie Lian whispers, keeping his voice little more than a whisper as he lays down on the grass. Hua Cheng sits next to him, his legs outstretched, and gapes up at the sky like a child in a candy store. 

The whole sky is a deep midnight blue, littered with so many stars that he struggles to focus on a single one glittering up there in the sky. A jagged slash of amethyst and soft pinks arches through the centre of what he can see, so bright that everything in the distance beyond the farm is nothing more than a black silhouette. 

It’s something he never thought he’d see, growing up in a city with light pollution, where even when he was sleeping on the shitty balcony of his father and stepmother’s crappy apartment the best he could see would be one or two particularly bright stars struggling to break through the light emitted by the city.

Something sharp lodges in his chest and makes it hard to breathe, and Hua Cheng swallows thickly before his emotions can get the better of him.

“It’s amazing.”

Xie Lian looks up at him and smiles softly. “I realised when we were in the village this morning, but you go to sleep before it’s dark and you wake up when the sun has already risen, so you probably wouldn’t get the chance to see it like this.”

“It wouldn’t have occurred to me on my own, gege. Thank you.” Hua Cheng takes his phone from his hoodie pocket and points it up, trying to get as many photographs as he can, knowing he’ll be disappointed because they’ll never, ever be as good as looking up at the real thing. He never even thought to bring his professional camera when he had packed to come out here, thinking that he could rely on daytime shots taken on his phone and brought to life in his sketchbooks and on his tablet. 

The quiet between them is gentle, comfortable. With Hua Cheng sitting up and Xie Lian lying down next to him, they’re quite close, with Xie Lian’s shoulder and arm pressed against Hua Cheng’s leg. He looks beautiful like this, his features seeming delicate in the dim light, his body cushioned by the thick grass and his hair loose and askew. His eyes are closed, a small smile tugging at his lips.

He looks serene, peaceful.

Hua Cheng couldn’t possibly sketch anything else. 

The silence stretches on, broken only by the sound of his pencil lightly scratching on the paper. He takes a few liberties with the pose, imagines it as though he were lying down opposite Xie Lian rather than above him, with him laid on his side rather than his back. The rest is accurate though, the soft angles of his face, the bow of his upper lip and the content expression on his face.

He’s beautiful.

The feeling that has lodged itself in his chest shifts again, exposing something fragile and hopeful from deep within his heart. He wants to catch it and hold it close, keep it safe, a warm ember from the early flames sparking to life in his chest.

“I didn’t know it looked like this either, before I came here.” Xie Lian whispers after a while, his voice gentle as though he’s sharing a secret. He cracks open one eye to peek up at Hua Cheng, who lowers his sketchpad and meets his gaze.

“Gege didn’t visit his grandparents often?”

He shakes his head.

“I did when I was little. But, ah, there’s no point avoiding the subject. You recognised me, so you must know. I became a child star when I was very young, modelling and commercial work only, but given who my father was, well.” 

Hua Cheng nods in understanding, shifting closer so he is pressed against Xie Lian a little better. This he already knows, that Xie Lian had been one of the first true idols in Xianle, and he knows well that he was also the first to fall from the grace of public opinion when his father’s money ran dry.

“You stopped coming.” He guesses, and Xie Lian sighs.

“My mother requested it. She didn’t want them following me and discovering I was visiting my grandparents. She didn’t want them to be harassed, even though it takes so long to get here. I used to come every summer until I was thirteen, and then I stopped.” He opens his other eye, and his expression seems faraway, full of a regret Hua Cheng hasn’t quite been allowed to understand yet.

“And you forgot the stars.”

“I forgot the stars.” His mouth twists into a little smile. “My first night here after I’d left Xianle after the funeral, when the farm was abandoned and all the rooms were empty, I couldn’t sleep. So I came out here. And I remembered sitting here with my grandmother, how the farm looked and how she ran it with my grandfather, and I just…planned it out. Under the stars.”

Hua Cheng wants to tell him he should be proud of how it has turned out, that he’s sure his grandparents would be pleased with how it looks now. Somehow, though, he doesn’t think that’s what he wants to hear.

“I’m sorry about what happened to your parents, gege. Did you ever see your grandparents again?”

Xie Lian shifts, letting his head loll back so he’s looking up at the stars again instead of at Hua Cheng.

“Ah, San Lang, that really is a long story for another day.”

Hua Cheng nods in understanding, placing his pencil on the floor and reaching out for Xie Lian’s hand. He gives it a reassuring squeeze before letting go, but Xie Lian’s warm fingers tighten around his own and keep him there.

“Thank you San Lang. For listening. It’s been so long since anyone looked at me and listened.”

Hua Cheng looks down at him, and finds himself transfixed by the way Xie Lian watches him.

“I’ll always listen, gege.” He whispers, aware of the fragile moment between them and desperate not to break it. Xie Lian smiles at him, and it feels far more delicate than it looks. 

Xie Lian closes his eyes again, his fingers still holding on to Hua Cheng’s right hand. Hua Cheng uses his left hand to balance the sketchbook on his lap, before he changes to a new page and picks the pencil back up.

He wants to sketch the look on Xie Lian’s face as he’d thanked Hua Cheng for listening to him, to remember an expression full of meaning and something else, something that looks a lot like the feeling taking root in his chest.

And then, when Hua Cheng is adding detail to Xie Lian’s face on the sketch, Xie Lian squeezes his hand and smiles up at him, softly.

“I believe you.”

Chapter Text

It’s the sunlight that wakes Hua Cheng up first, the early-morning rays shining down directly on his face in a way they haven’t done in years. It brings Hua Cheng to awareness, slowly at first, his mind recognising an uncomfortable cool wetness at the back of his neck, and the numb feeling in his right arm.

Then he becomes aware of warmth on either side of him, and he cracks his good eye open in confusion.

Xie Lian is curled into him, his body angled towards him, legs pressed against his own and his arms wound around Hua Cheng’s right arm like a teddy bear. His face is pushed into Hua Cheng’s shoulder, the majority of his features hidden by the red fabric of Hua Cheng’s hoodie, but he looks content.

Hua Cheng allows himself to fully wake up, a little dazed by the sight. Xie Lian, in his sleep, seems to have simply gravitated towards him, holding onto him like a lifeline and trusting him enough to fall asleep in his presence. It makes him feel almost giddy, as though the strange and sudden connection he has felt with Xie Lian is reciprocated in kind.

He could lie here all morning and look at Xie Lian, count the lines around his eyes and gently brush the hair away from his face, maybe open his arms and let him fall into him properly, sleeping curled into his chest. Hua Cheng has never been a person who happily accepts the touch of others, but he’d do anything to maintain the level of physical contact that they share.

His observations tell him that Xie Lian might be similar. After all, he hadn’t touched Ban Yue at all in the store, and the hug he gave the woman in the village was a little awkward, maybe even strained. And yet, from almost the moment he met Hua Cheng here, all he’s done is touch. Little brushes of skin when they’re working, nudging Hua Cheng with his elbow and leaning into his shoulder when they eat, all innocuous touches, but ones he doesn’t seem to give anyone else.

And then this, falling asleep under the stars with Hua Cheng and then falling asleep curled up into him, after little more than a week?

Sighing, Hua Cheng forces himself to put the matter aside. He can’t ask about it, and ruminating on it will only serve to drive him mad.

Instead, he begins to gently squeeze Xie Lian’s hand, rousing him from his slumber.

“Gege, wake up.” Hua Cheng whispers, trying not to grin at the cute sight of Xie Lian resisting, turning his head and burrowing further into Hua Cheng. It takes a few more squeezes of his hand before Xie Lian leans back and opens his eyes.

“Good morning, San Lang.” Xie Lian looks up at him sleepily, his eyes wide but his smile soft. His voice is barely more than a whisper, quiet and intimate in the early morning air. There are multiple grass seeds in his mussed hair, his lips are cracked from the dry air, and Hua Cheng can’t quite tell but he thinks Xie Lian might have been drooling in his sleep before he woke up.

“Good morning gege.”

“Did you sleep well?” Xie Lian’s voice is sleep slow, barely more than a mumble as he lets his eyes slip closed again.

“I did. Gege must have too - he looks really comfortable.” Hua Cheng teases, and delights in the way Xie Lian’s entire expression changes in a single heartbeat. The smile briefly wavers in confusion as a blush begins to bloom on his cheeks, his eyes opening and flicking down to where his arms are wrapped around Hua Cheng’s arm. Hua Cheng can see the moment he wakes up fully and realises what he is doing, his eyes widening and his entire body tensing in guilty embarrassment.

“San Lang! I’m so sorry, I just-“ He cuts himself off, nervous and a little mortified. Hua Cheng thinks it’s the cutest thing he’s ever seen. Xie Lian moves to yank his hands away from Hua Cheng, but is stopped when Hua Cheng only squeezes his hand.

“It’s okay, gege. I don’t mind being squished by you both.” He says, smirk lifting his lips. Xie Lian’s brows furrow in confusion once more, his mouth moving as he quietly repeats Hua Cheng’s words before his gaze falls past Hua Cheng to focus on the big ball of fluff tucked against Hua Cheng’s back.

“Ruoye!”

The pressure against Hua Cheng’s back eases as Ruoye’s head pops up from where she’s buried her nose into the back of his neck.

“San Lang, I’m really so-“

“Gege, it’s fine.” Xie Lian still blushes despite his words, though that may have something to do with the way Hua Cheng is rubbing gentle circles onto the back of his hand. “Gege can lay on me anytime.”

The noise that comes out of Xie Lian’s throat can only be described as one of utter shock and mortification. He yanks his hand back, his blush spreading down his neck as he scrambles to his feet.

“We should get ready! The hens and the sheep can’t wait too long-“

“Gege, it’s not even five in the morning-“

“And we have to shear the sheep - I’ll make us breakfast!” And then he’s gone, rushing inside the farmhouse as Hua Cheng stares after him, torn between giggling and the urge to go after him and apologise.

Next to him, Ruoye gets up, her heavy body jostling his as she does so. He only realises that he’s imposing human emotions on her when he makes eye contact with her, and wonders if the look in her eyes is one of immense disappointment at his terrible attempts at flirting. He holds her gaze for several seconds, wondering what she's thinking, what could possibly be going through her mind.

And then she turns and ambles off after Xie Lian, leaving Hua Cheng sitting in the grass all alone.

“Gege, she looks really uncomfortable.”

“San Lang, she’s fine. Lift her leg a little higher?”

Hua Cheng does as he’s asked, raising the sheep’s left front leg higher up so Xie Lian can get behind it to snip the wool away.

For almost the entire time they’ve been shearing this particular sheep, she’s been standing on a raised platform as Xie Lian showed him where to start, and how to cut so that the wool comes off in one big piece. It had seemed simple, too easy, and he’d almost been expecting it to get difficult when Xie Lian asked him to stand behind the sheep and pull her up to stand on her hind legs.

Hua Cheng is honestly lucky that Yin Yu and He Xuan aren’t here. He doesn’t think even his straight-faced assistant could hold back a laugh at the sight, and He Xuan would have him trending on every social media platform there is if he could see Hua Cheng standing there, practically spooning a sheep as he holds her up to get her stomach shaved.

He’s probably not even holding her properly, either. He’s holding her up by the legs, but he’s holding her more tightly than he likely should be. Torn between worry that she’ll wriggle and kick him to escape or worse, hurt Xie Lian in her panic to get away, it’s quite possible he’s only adding to her discomfort.

There’s a bead of sweat forming on his temple and beginning to trickle down the side of his face when Xie Lian finally motions for him to let go of the sheep. He lowers her down gently, relieved when he can let go of her and feel cool air against his body once more.

“There you go.” Xie Lian croons to the sheep as he removes the rope from around her neck and encourages her off the platform. She immediately runs outside, stopping only at the entrance to the barn when she realises that the rest of her flock are still inside, awaiting their turn with the shears.

Hua Cheng laughs at the sight of the confused sheep sticking her head back inside the barn, her ears down. “She didn’t get very far.”

Xie Lian huffs out a laugh of his own as he gently loops the rope around the next sheep’s neck and leads her out of the pen and onto the platform. “She’ll relax once we get at least another one of them done. They don’t like being on their own.”

Hua Cheng nods, supposing that it makes sense. They’re usually always standing in pairs when he looks down from the farm at them, and the ones on their own always have a chicken companion.

He’s pulled from his ruminating about sheep and chickens when Xie Lian ties the sheep to the platform and then holds out the shears for Hua Cheng to take.

“…gege?”

Xie Lian smiles, little dimples appearing in his cheeks. “Your turn, San Lang!”

Hua Cheng stares at the shears with something that feels a little like trepidation, reaching out for them slowly and hoping Xie Lian will suddenly change his mind.

He has no such luck - Xie Lian takes one look at the expression on his face and immediately starts laughing.

“San Lang, you look terrified! She won’t harm you, and you won’t harm her either.”

“I’m not scared, gege.” It sounds false to his own ears, so he can only imagine how pathetic he sounds to Xie Lian.

“You can do it, San Lang, I wouldn’t let you near her if I didn’t think you could do it.”

Xie Lian’s reassurance is genuinely confidence-boosting, but Hua Cheng can’t help but realise just how sharp the shears are.

“Gege, these look really sharp.” What if he hurts her? Will Xie Lian ever forgive him? He thinks that he would, but he also knows Xie Lian well enough now to know that the man would likely feel bad for letting Hua Cheng near her, and worse, he’d feel bad for Hua Cheng and the sheep.

“Ah, you’ll be fine!” Xie Lian gently pats the sheep on her side as he speaks, and Hua Cheng realises he’s not getting out of this particular task.

Taking a steadying breath, he lowers the shears, starting at the sheep’s chest and snipping slowly as he holds the wool and pulls as he cuts it away. The sheep stands relatively still, but he’s really in her space, manoeuvring around her head as he pulls the wool up and snips beneath. It makes it a little uncomfortable, if only because leaning in to shear a sheep whilst said sheep stares at him is naturally discomfiting, but soon he has a segment of wool large enough to assuage his concerns. He can do this, as long as he goes slowly.

It’s soothing, really, once he relaxes. It requires focus but not much thought, and he can lose himself in the task. The metallic snipping of the shears is constant and grounding, supplemented by the whirring of the crappy old fan Xie Lian plugged in to keep them cool. Distantly, he can hear the clucking of the chickens outside, and every so often a sheep in the enclosure moves around, giving him the sound of cloven feet rustling the hay.

They continue in a comfortable silence, right up until Hua Cheng has trimmed nearly all of the wool, and only the belly area remains. He makes eye contact with Xie Lian, who nods at him and leans over the sheep to untie her rope.

They move around each other seamlessly, Hua Cheng stepping back and off the platform. Xie Lian stands behind the sheep and holds her up in the same way Hua Cheng had held the first sheep up, though he’s a lot more confident with her than Hua Cheng was, and as a result this sheep doesn’t wriggle at all.

“You’re a lot faster at this gege.” He says to break the quiet, aware of Xie Lian’s gaze on him as he slowly and meticulously trims along the underbelly of the sheep. He’s probably taking twice the amount of time Xie Lian took to shear the first sheep, but Xie Lian doesn’t look at all like he’s bothered by holding up the weight of the animal.

“Hm? Oh, some people can do it in less than two minutes San Lang! I don’t like how they do it though. This way is a lot gentler.” His gaze is full of approval as he watches how careful Hua Cheng is with his animals, and Hua Cheng realises he really wasn’t kidding before.

He has no doubt that if he seemed truly unsteady or too panicked to do it, Xie Lian would not have let him in the barn with the shears.

With a minute or two more of concentration, the last of the wool comes off the sheep, and Xie Lian gently lowers her back onto the platform as Hua Cheng tosses the wool atop the pile from the first sheep. When he turns back, Xie Lian hands him the hoof trimmers.

He’s more confident with this task, at least. Xie Lian had shown him before he’d trimmed the first sheep, and it’s pretty obvious on this sheep where he needs to trim. He still takes longer than Xie Lian did, being extra careful as he gets used to the strength of the trimmers, how much force he needs to exert on them to trim away the hoof.

When he’s done, Xie Lian claps for him, looking pleased.

“See, I knew San Lang could do it. You should take a photograph.” He suggests, stepping down off the platform to come around to where the sheep’s head is. Hua Cheng contemplates his suggestion for a moment - the sheep really doesn’t look like she’s had a neat trim, with visible sections of longer wool, but it is only his first attempt.

Before he can dissuade himself, he snaps a photo on his cellphone and sends it to Yin Yu with no other message, smirking a little at the thought of his assistant being genuinely confused at the image of a single, badly-shorn sheep.

And then, because he is greedy, because he is stupidly head-over-heels for Xie Lian already, he takes another image. It’s a gentle one, automatically taken in portrait mode, of Xie Lian leaning in to coo at his animal. He’s almost nose to muzzle with her, his fingers tucked into the rope around her neck to hold her steady as he whispers something comforting to her. It’s a lovely image, Xie Lian and the sheep in perfect focus, with the browns and reds of the barn behind them out of focus.

He saves the image, and hides his cellphone in his hoodie pocket.

It will make for a beautiful sketch later.

Chapter Text

Time passes quickly as they settle into a routine, as Hua Cheng's body clock adjusts to match Xie Lian's, and the cool early days of summer begin to shift into the hot and humid days of midsummer.

They grow more comfortable around each other, becoming more tactile as the days pass them by. It’s little things, the bumping of their hips as they move around each other to prepare dinner, the way Xie Lian’s fingers will linger on his when he passes him his morning cup of coffee, or the way Hua Cheng lets his head fall on Xie Lian’s shoulder on the sofa when he’s tired, or when they’re sitting eating lunch and he’s too warm.

It’s nice, knowing that they have an unspoken freedom to touch. Hua Cheng takes advantage of it often, complaining about the heat or the effort required for a task or even just because he’s too tired. Xie Lian usually takes the opportunity to laugh at him and stand close to him, arms brushing or their legs pressed together. On the occasions where Hua Cheng dramatically drops his head to Xie Lian’s shoulder he’s often rewarded with a hand on his shoulder or a gentle rub of his back as Xie Lian laughs.

The days grow ever hotter, the sun high in the sky and beating down brutally on them. Hua Cheng is grateful for his hat and for Xie Lian’s consideration, as he fills the fridge every morning with water for them. He laughs and tells Hua Cheng one day about the time he got sunstroke from not drinking enough in the first summer he was here, but Hua Cheng only finds the reminder that Xie Lian has been alone upsetting.

Before Hua Cheng realises it, a month has passed.

He can’t really believe it, that he’s already a quarter of a way through his time here. He’s been having so much fun, even though the work really is hard. He’s noticed a difference though - his skin isn’t quite as ghostly pale as it had been when he left Xianle, and as he stands in front of the mirror in his bedroom, he thinks he might have actually grown some muscle during the days of heavy lifting.

He spends an embarrassing moment trying to flex his arms to be sure, but he thinks he’s right, and that he’s not imagining the definition he can see along his biceps and shoulders.

Initially, he’s genuinely not trying to tease Xie Lian. He’s just so comfortable around him that getting a second opinion on this feels natural, so he doesn’t think twice about leaving his room with his shirt in his hands. Xie Lian is sitting at the table, spooning the last of his congee into his mouth as he reads a newspaper they picked up from the village a few days earlier.

Gods, he’s such an old man. Hua Cheng loves it.

“Gege, do I look like I’ve put on some muscle tone?” He asks as he approaches the table, laying his shirt over the back of the chair when he reaches it.

“Hm?” Xie Lian looks up from his newspaper, eyes wide, and Hua Cheng only realises that he’s just asked Xie Lian to ogle him when he sees the way he immediately looks away, struggling to swallow his food. There’s a blush creeping up his chest, and he shifts uncomfortably on his seat.

“Ah, San Lang has been working very hard. It’s only natural that you would become stronger.”

Hua Cheng lets his shoulders slump. “So gege doesn’t think I’ve put on muscle. You don’t think I’ve become big and strong.”

Xie Lian coughs into his fist, the blush spreading up the column of his throat, and he briefly gets up to grab their cups off the kitchen counter.

“San Lang is fishing for compliments.” He grumbles as he takes a sip of his tea and puts Hua Cheng’s coffee in front of the seat he should be sitting in.

“I just want gege’s honest opinion.” Hua Cheng stretches and lets out a yawn, which majorly impacts how flirtatious that sentence actually is. However, Xie Lian’s eyes roam back over to his chest, up over his collarbones and down over his biceps, before flicking back up to guiltily meet Hua Cheng’s gaze.

“I think you should put your shirt on.” Xie Lian tries his best at appearing unaffected, but it’s not very convincing. His gaze keeps moving back to Hua Cheng’s chest too much for it to be pulled off.

“Gege takes his shirt off all the time.” He pouts, trying hard not to grin at how clearly flustered Xie Lian is. “This feels like a double standard.”

“San Lang burns faster than I do.”

“Gege just doesn’t want to see my ugly skinny body.”

Xie Lian’s cup comes down hard on the table. “I like your-“ His indignation runs faster than his brain, but it catches up before the confession can be pulled out. Hua Cheng’s eyes widen as he turns and stares at Xie Lian, who has his hand clamped tightly over his mouth.

Xie Lian reddens, and Hua Cheng can feel the beginnings of a smirk curling at his lips as he sits down opposite Xie Lian.

“Oh? Gege likes my what? My skinny body?”

He’s sure that if Xie Lian were standing, he’d have stumbled by this point. His embarrassment is clear on his face, judging by his wide eyes and his flaming cheeks.

“I never said that!”

“Really?” Hua Cheng rests his chin on his hand, his smile never leaving his face. “Because it sounded like that was-“

Xie Lian reaches around him and grabs his shirt off the back of his chair, balling it up and throwing it at his chest.

“Put your shirt on or you’ll burn!” He gets up with a huff, leaving Hua Cheng laughing at the table as he heads outside to begin setting up for the day.

Today’s morning activity is harvesting luffas.

Hua Cheng wouldn’t mind, but given the topic of this morning’s conversation, he’d figured Xie Lian would stay away from anything else that could be used to tease him. The terrace with big phallic vegetables growing on trellises is not what he’d have thought Xie Lian would want to do today.

“Okay,” Xie Lian starts, handing him a basket that goes over his shoulders and rests at his back. “You want to give it a squeeze to see if it’s ready.”

When Hua Cheng turns to him with a mischievous grin ready on his lips, Xie Lian clears his throat and ignores him. “If it’s soft, then cut it down. If it’s green but hard, leave it, it isn’t ripe. And if it’s yellow and hard, leave it - it’ll make a good sponge later.”

“Okay, gege.” Hua Cheng is certain that his restraint in commenting is surprising to Xie Lian, who smiles and adjusts his basket. It’s a long cylindrical one, and Hua Cheng has to admit that he didn’t think these were a thing anymore. He’s seen them in old illustrations, farmers wearing them and holding onto the straps, produce peeking out the back of them.

It’s comfortable, and he’s not irritated like he is with the smaller baskets by the weight of wicker on his skin, scratching and leaving marks down his arm from where he’d let it hang.

They move down each side of the trellises, close enough that their baskets keep hitting each other as they move. It takes a couple of luffas before Hua Cheng can gauge the right amount of squishiness for the ripe ones, but he manages to get a laughing snort out of Xie Lian when he suggestively squeezes a luffa and throws him a cheeky look.

There’s not much of an airflow in the trellises due to their proximity, and the sun is shining down on them from above. Xie Lian looks like he’s actively overheating, sweat dripping down the back of his neck and giving his shirt visible damp patches.

Hua Cheng feels a little bad, knowing that Xie Lian has usually removed his shirt by now. He never stays shirtless for too long, only until he returns to the farmhouse at lunchtime and grabs something loose and flowy to return in.

“Gege should take his shirt off if he’s too hot.” He finally says, feeling bad when he sees Xie Lian wipe his forehead for the third time in as many minutes. Xie Lian pauses, his knife at the stem of a luffa.

“San Lang just wants to tease me.”

“I promise I won’t tease.” Hua Cheng says with a grin, holding his hands up as if surrendering. Xie Lian eyes him for a moment with clear suspicion in his gaze, before he sighs and drops his basket to the floor.

And damn, making the promise not to tease is so worth it, the sight of Xie Lian peeling his shirt off is enough to send Hua Cheng into another dimension. He has to angle his body away to hide his growing erection as Xie Lian tucks the shirt into his belt, displaying his broad shoulders and toned arms for Hua Cheng to see. It takes serious effort for him to divert his gaze away from the small trail of dark hair leading from beneath his navel to the line of his trousers.

Hua Cheng hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d argued that Xie Lian has removed his shirt a lot over the last couple of weeks, but each time he does it is as intoxicating as the first time. Xie Lian doesn’t have a lot of body hair and what he does have is thin, so that without the shirt on his chest and upper arms look hairless. It makes every line of his muscles stand out, makes Hua Cheng want to reach out and touch him, drag his tongue between those dusky nipples-

He grabs a luffa on its stem and snaps it off, trying to clamp down on the aching throb between his legs.

“Is gege going to sell these in the village?” Hua Cheng finally asks when he’s managed to distract himself enough to make his erection recede a bit. It’s fine, totally fine, he just has to not look at Xie Lian.

Totally doable.

“Hm? Oh, yes! I can make quite a bit for these, especially tomorrow for the festival. Lots of the villagers like to use them in their broths since they’re easy to eat and we’ll all be quite full from the rice dumplings.”

And oh, crap, Hua Cheng had completely forgotten about tomorrow. The days are passing by too quickly for him to keep track.

“I forgot tomorrow was the Dragon Boat Festival, gege.” Hua Cheng admits, but Xie Lian only smiles across at him.

“That’s okay! We celebrate it differently here anyway, San Lang. It’s so different to Xianle.” He reaches over his shoulder to put a luffa in his basket, misses, and then grins when Hua Cheng catches it and puts it in for him.

“How so?” He’s curious, wondering if they’ll do anything to celebrate the day, maybe go into the village, or spend it cooking at the farmhouse.

Xie Lian looks contemplative for a moment as he remembers the celebrations in Xianle, the huge colourful boat races and the endless hours of eating different types of rice dumplings, almost choking on them with laughter as Feng Xin would eat far more than necessary, Mu Qing’s harsh I told you so every year when Feng Xin would inevitably be unable to move from the nausea of overeating.

“Well, we don’t really do the boat races here, that’s more common in the south. We do still have activities for the children though, and we’ll be going into the village for lunch.”

Hua Cheng is busy trying to fight with the stem of another luffa, so he doesn’t see the surreptitious look Xie Lian throws him, or the way his hands shake a little when he mentions going into the village for lunch.

“I’m looking forward to seeing gege’s new traditions, then.” Hua Cheng does catch the gentle smile that Xie Lian has at his words, and he bumps Xie Lian’s basket with his own as he grins. “And I promise not to tease you tomorrow.”

Xie Lian laughs then, loudly, his head tilted back to face the sun. He looks wonderful.

“Somehow I don’t believe that, San Lang.”

As it turns out, Hua Cheng has to break his promise before they’ve even hit ten o’clock in the morning.

They follow their usual routine of letting the chickens and the sheep out, and once they’re back at the farmhouse Xie Lian sets up a couple of tables in the courtyard.

Turns out they’re cooking.

Well, not quite. They’re preparing fresh dumplings to take into the village later, but they won't be cooking them here. Xie Lian starts with making the dough, whilst Hua Cheng is tasked with gathering the mushrooms, tofu, garlic and chives for the filling and putting them on another table ready to be chopped. He has most of them ready when he returns to the kitchen for the tofu and hears Xie Lian’s cellphone begin to buzz on the table.

“Gege, your cellphone is buzzing.” Hua Cheng shouts out the door, unwrapping the block of tofu from the cellophane and weighing it out in the kitchen before taking the amount he needs outside. Xie Lian turns to him, his hands covered in flour from kneading the dough for their dumplings.

“Could you check it for me San Lang? It doesn’t have a password.” He moves to the outside tap to wash off his hands, waving away a curious Ruoye as Hua Cheng puts the tofu down and heads back inside to grab the phone off the table.

It’s funny, he thinks. This man was once the idol of Xianle, the son of a business tech giant with access to the literal very best of anything and everything, and yet the cellphone Hua Cheng holds in his hand is so old it’s practically a brick. He’s honestly impressed it even has a touch screen.

It takes him a moment to open the messages since he needs to press down much harder on the screen than he does his own, but he opens the text just as he comes out the front door to the house.

He can’t help the shit-eating smirk on his face when Xie Lian looks up expectantly.

“Aw, gege, do you have an old lady from the village listed in your phone as popo?”

“Ah, yeah. What did she say?” Xie Lian looks at him with a look that isn’t exactly wary, but they’re familiar enough with each other now that he knows exactly what Hua Cheng looks like when he’s feeling mischievous, and he’s no doubt waiting for Hua Cheng to say something outrageous.

Hua Cheng delivers, leaning against the doorframe with his smirk widening even more.

“She wants to know what time you and your handsome helper are coming into the village for the celebrations.”

“She didn’t- she wouldn’t write-“ Xie Lian moves closer to him, getting gloriously close to Hua Cheng as he pulls the cellphone out of his hands and looks down at the screen, his cheeks reddening but still disbelieving Hua Cheng’s words.

Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what the text says, and Xie Lian lets out a startled yelp and throws the cellphone at the table where he’s letting the dough rest. It misses and clatters to the floor, bouncing twice off the dirt.

“Gege!” He can’t help but wince, knowing that if he did that to his own cellphone not even his luck would prevent the screen from shattering into pieces. Xie Lian only grabs it off the floor and dusts it off though, avoiding Hua Cheng’s eyes as he fires back a quick reply to the text.

“No harm done to it, San Lang, these are pretty sturdy. Takes more than a throw to break them, aha!” He says, and his tone implies he definitely knows that from experience.

Hua Cheng is content to let the teasing rest once Xie Lian returns to their task, grabbing the mushrooms and a cooking knife and getting to work on chopping them up. His cellphone buzzes again, with both of them shifting to look down at it when the screen lights up.

“Is gege going to open that?” Hua Cheng asks, a teasing lilt to his words. Xie Lian only glances over at him before his lips press together in a line, clearly embarrassed as he stares down at his mushrooms.

“No.”

He can’t possibly do anything other than laugh at that, which only prompts Xie Lian to throw a claggy bit of dough left on the table at him.

“What time are we going into the village today gege?” Hua Cheng breaks the descending quiet as he begins to mince the block of tofu. The motions are familiar and repetitive, and he’s honestly just grateful for a chance to be doing something in the shade. The sun is brutal today, with very little wind, and even Xie Lian had worried over the sheep as they refilled all the water bowls and created small puddles with the hose for the chickens.

“Once we’ve got these dumplings ready to cook, we’ll go. I’ve already put the vegetables in the back of the truck.”

Hua Cheng nods, turning back down to his tofu and frowning. He doesn’t think it’s been pressed enough, not if the sheer wetness of it is anything to go by.

“Before we go into the village, there’s ah, something San Lang should know.” Xie Lian’s words bring Hua Cheng out of his tofu-centred thoughts, and when Hua Cheng looks over he notices how Xie Lian is watching him out of the corner of his eye. He’s trying hard to appear nonchalant, but his fingers are trembling, and his grip on the knife is a little unsteady.

Hua Cheng tries to keep his voice soft and gentle when he responds, hoping that he says the right thing, that Xie Lian won’t regret starting what seems like a serious conversation. “What does gege want me to know?”

“You know that I left Xianle after ah, a difficult few years? I left only a few days after my father’s death, once the funeral was over.”

Nodding, Hua Cheng doesn’t look at him, only continues mincing the last of the tofu. If he stares, Xie Lian might become uncomfortable. “I had heard, gege."

“There was a lot that happened that I won’t get into, that isn’t really important for now.”

“If gege wants to tell me, I want to listen.” Hua Cheng interrupts, hoping he sounds as sincere as he feels. Xie Lian looks up at him then, and his smile feels true, as though he believes Hua Cheng’s words fully and finds them comforting.

“I will tell you, someday. I trust you, San Lang.”

Hua Cheng feels a little warm, the back of his neck and his cheeks heating up at the way Xie Lian looks at him, as though he trusts him and genuinely finds him worthy of that trust.

“Anyway, you probably know my parents were hounded with scandal after scandal, and most of them weren’t even true. The press became more intrusive. I remember waking up one morning to a commotion because a journalist had broken into the house to try and rummage through my father’s office. After the accident killed my father, I couldn't stay a moment longer. I signed over everything from the business to Jun Wu, his business rival, and sold everything to pay off all my father’s debts.”

Hua Cheng can feel Xie Lian’s gaze on him, heavy and calculating. He looks up to meet it again, smiling softly. This doesn’t feel like the confession, but a build up to some secret. Xie Lian looks like a man with a secret that he’s relieved to finally let out in the open, but Hua Cheng can’t quite figure out what it is.

Across from him, Xie Lian’s shoulders relax, and he looks down at the mushrooms he’s chopping.

“I had money saved from when I was an idol, not a crazy amount, but it was high. Probably not enough to buy a house in Xianle, but enough that I could never spend it all living here. So I left.” His inhale is shaky, and Hua Cheng can see him put down the knife as his trembling hands become too much. “And I took my mother with me.”

Hua Cheng’s own chopping stops abruptly as he registers those words. His mother…his mother.

How did he miss it? Hua Cheng had known for years that Xie Lian’s father died in the car accident, he remembers trawling through years-old articles showing Xie Lian and his mother at the funeral, and yet the Xie patriarch’s quiet, unassuming wife had never been mentioned when the press had noted Xie Lian’s disappearance. Hua Cheng had allowed himself to forget that, had somehow allowed himself to believe she died with Xie Lian’s father or shortly after.

Which in hindsight, must have been exactly what Xie Lian had wanted.

It’s so obvious now. The woman in the village who makes Xie Lian food every Sunday, who he whispers to and hugs awkwardly when Hua Cheng is near, whose bad food Hua Cheng can eat not because he is simply used to Xie Lian’s cooking, but because it is off just like Xie Lian’s. And the way Xie Lian had answered that first time, full of awkwardness when Hua Cheng had teased about the woman wanting him for a son…

“The lady from the village.” Hua Cheng finally says aloud, and Xie Lian’s worried expression turns soft.

“My mother.”

Of course. He has met her every Sunday without fail, running off on his errands whilst Hua Cheng explores the village. Hua Cheng had been too busy teasing him about all the aunties in the village doting on him that he failed to realise it was one woman, consistently. He himself has barely seen her, only glimpses of her as she and Xie Lian said their goodbyes, but if he tries to visualise her in his head he thinks he can see the similarities.

“So when gege said he didn’t inherit the farm, did your mother inherit it?”

But to his surprise, Xie Lian shakes his head.

“I rent it for a ridiculously cheap rate. A few of my crops each week, that’s all.” He starts, and then smiles when Hua Cheng’s eyes widen at the thought of someone outside his family owning his family home. “I rent it off my popo.”

Hua Cheng pauses his chopping once again, feeling like he’s being repeatedly hit by a bus full of information.

Has he spent so long acting like a teenager with their first crush when it came to Xie Lian that he failed to notice literally anything else? Xie Lian had told him he didn’t inherit the farm, but Hua Cheng had just assumed, completely forgetting there was an entire maternal side to Xie Lian’s family that had never featured in anything to do with the young idol when he lived in Xianle.

“Wait, gege, then the woman who texted you-“

Xie Lian reddens immediately, mistaking Hua Cheng’s growing concerns as an incoming tease. “Yes, that’s my popo, but I swear-“

“Gege, are we going to their house in the village for lunch?”

Xie Lian brightens, his smile wide. “Yes! I hope you don’t mind, I didn’t want you to be cooped away here and I think you’ll have fun.”

Is Hua Cheng dreaming? Five minutes ago and they were just casually going into the village for lunch, but now he’s learned he’s going to be meeting Xie Lian’s mother? His grandmother?

Today?

“Gege, I don’t have any gifts to make a good impression, and I don’t have any nice clothes.”

Xie Lian laughs, and the relief that thrums through his entire body is palpable. Any other time Hua Cheng would be pleased to have such an effect on him, but this is serious. He doesn’t usually give a shit what anyone thinks of him or the way he dresses, but he likes Xie Lian, almost certainly as more than a friend and host, and Xie Lian must be close to his mother if he has gone through such lengths to hide her presence from the rest of the world. If she doesn’t like Hua Cheng, then he really has no chance at all.

“San Lang, it’s okay, you’re my guest, not theirs. And we’re bringing dumplings and eggs and vegetables for the meal, so you really don’t have to worry about a gift. And what you’re wearing is absolutely fine.”

It is not. He’s been outside all morning sweating under the sun. He’s not used to the heat and the humidity without being able to escape to an air conditioned room, so he sweats a lot more than Xie Lian does.

“What time are we going to the village again?” He asks, scraping the tofu into a bowl and grabbing the bunch of chives. His chopping is so fast that it’s almost unsafe, and even Xie Lian widens his eyes at the method.

“We need to be there by noon if we don’t want to be late.”

Gods, he thinks, throwing them into the bowl with the tofu. He has just over an hour until he meets Xie Lian’s family.

“Gege should have warned me.” He says, affecting a betrayed look as Xie Lian looks up at him and laughs. He pats Hua Cheng gently on the shoulder as he moves around him to dump his mushrooms into the bowl.

“Ah, but San Lang has spent so long teasing me, where would the fun in that be?”

Chapter Text

“Are you nervous?” Xie Lian asks Hua Cheng as they walk down the street towards the door to his family’s house. He bumps Hua Cheng’s shoulder with his own, a friendly smile on his face, as though doing so could erase the worry that churns in his stomach.

Of course he’s nervous! Why would they like him, an artist whose arms are covered in tattoos with one red eye and an attitude problem, who does his best to outrageously flirt with their son and grandson?

“I don’t think you have an attitude problem.” 

Fuck, did he say that part aloud? 

“I’ve been on my best behaviour for gege.”

Xie Lian laughs at him and the frown on his face. “You’ll be fine, San Lang. I promise.”

Hua Cheng shifts the basket in his arms. “Do I need to be very formal?”

“Hm?” Xie Lian looks across at him as he stops outside a painted wooden door. “My mother prefers to use my father's family name. I know it's not traditional but she wanted to have that connection to him after she died. You should greet her as ā yí, and my grandmother as popo. I think they would be more upset if you were really formal.” 

Hua Cheng nods, wondering what a sight they must look like, Xie Lian with his big hat on his back and Hua Cheng holding a basket of dumplings under his arm that is possibly as wide as he is tall. Ruoye sits at his feet, her nose practically in the basket as her tail thumps hard against his ankles.

Xie Lian knocks on the wooden door, and Hua Cheng feels oddly nervous until they hear a very loud shout to come in from the other side. Xie Lian pushes the door and goes in, Hua Cheng behind him as Ruoye rushes between their legs in search of Xie Lian’s grandmother.

The two women are inside the kitchen when they enter, the older one already bending down to greet Ruoye and the younger, Xie Lian’s mother, is uncovering a bowl of risen dough.

“Popo, mama.” Xie Lian embraces them both, falling into their arms easily, and it’s so much more natural than the awkward hugs Hua Cheng had glimpsed him giving his mother over the last few weeks. He knows he should be pleased that Xie Lian trusts him enough that he can now hug his family with as much affection as he wants, but Hua Cheng just feels sad that Xie Lian ever felt like he had to hold back from his mother to begin with.

“This is Hua Cheng, he’s been helping me on the farm. I told you about him.” Xie Lian says when he has stepped out of his mother’s arms and returned to stand by Hua Cheng. “San Lang, this is Chen Hui, my grandmother, and Xie Wan, my mother.”

Putting on his most charming smile, Hua Cheng holds out the basket of dumplings and takes a step closer. “Popo, ā yí. We brought dumplings to go with lunch.”

Up close, he can definitely see why Xie Lian kept his mother at a distance. He resembles her a lot, with the same dark amber eyes and similar mouths, and both of them being of the same stature. Her hair is a lighter shade, a dark chestnut smattered with grey compared to his inky strands, but with them both wearing their long hair up in similar high buns, the resemblance is undeniable.

“Oh, how sweet of you. Thank you.” Xie Wan takes the basket from him with a smile that looks so much like Xie Lian’s that it’s really surprising he didn’t notice this resemblance sooner. Will Xie Lian remain so similar when he’s older, with the same laugh lines around his eyes and his mouth? Will he go grey at the edges first, or will his hair match hers, steadily lightening in the sun with the grey spread throughout?

Lunch is almost ready, if the sizzling of the wok is anything to go by, and Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are immediately put to work to help dish things up. Xie Wan carefully lowers the dumplings into the wok and covers it with a lid, as Xie Lian and Hua Cheng set the table and carry over a large bowl of noodles.

Thankfully, Xie Lian sits next to Hua Cheng when the food is ready, putting a bowl of broth and dumplings in front of him as Ruoye seats herself beneath the table in the hope of being given some food. She's out of luck though, as they wait for Xie Lian's grandmother to take her seat before they start, and there's no way he'd be able to sneak anything under the table for her.

The luffa broth is salty but strangely sweet, and the dumplings he and Xie Lian had prepared that morning are overcooked and a little soggy, but they’re still tasty. The cold noodles in the middle of the table are spicy, but they taste fine, and Hua Cheng thinks that maybe that dish was prepared by Xie Lian’s grandmother instead of his mother.

Lunch is a bit of a quiet affair, with Xie Lian and his grandmother doing most of the talking. It’s not awkward, simply the natural quiet that comes when there is someone new at the table, and Hua Cheng gets the feeling that Xie Lian’s mother is naturally a quiet woman. She does ask Hua Cheng about how he’s finding the farm, and Xie Lian tells his mother with a laugh about how worried Hua Cheng had been with the sheep shearing, which only turns Hua Cheng’s ears pink with a blush.

He can feel Xie Wan’s eyes on him as they talk, observing carefully the way Xie Lian chats animatedly with his grandmother, his hand reaching out to rest on Hua Cheng’s forearm whenever his name is mentioned. He meets her gaze during one of her looks, but she only smiles at him, and it’s as enigmatic as it is confusing.

When they’re finished eating, Xie Lian’s grandmother is the first to rise.

“Come, Hua Cheng, you can help with the zongzi. These two will tidy up.” Chen Hui ushers him over to the table that she was setting up, and Xie Lian throws Hua Cheng an encouraging smile before he turns to help his mother collect the bowls and chopsticks.

They move around each other easily, as Hua Cheng is guided to the smaller table and Chen Hui sits across from him. The ingredients are spread out between them, and the old woman sets several soaked bamboo leaves down onto the empty plates in front of them both.

“You know how to make these?” She asks, forming a cone from the leaves and reaching for a handful of cold sticky rice. Hua Cheng feels a little self conscious as he meets her gaze and shakes his head.

“I’ve never been shown how.”

He expects her to cluck her tongue at him, wonder how he couldn’t possibly know how to make rice dumplings of all things, but then, given that these are the women who raised Xie Lian, he should have known better than to be surprised when she smiles kindly at him and then slowly goes through the steps.

His fingers are bright red and sticky, and he’s made three or four strangely-shaped dumplings when she changes the conversation.

“You are from one of the cities?” 

“Xianle.” He sees the way her eyebrows raise at the admission, and he hurries to correct any assumptions she’s about to make. “I didn’t know ge- Xie Lian was from Xianle until we met.” It is only a half truth, of course - he knew Xie Lian was from Xianle, he just didn’t know Xie Lian would be all the way out here. 

She nods, tying off her dumpling with the red twine on the table and cutting it. She’s managed to make nearly double the amount Hua Cheng has in the same amount of time. Chen Hui may be old, but her hands are quicker with years of practice. 

“Xie Lian says you are an artist.” 

Feeling himself perking up, as this is familiar ground and a way to show that no, he’s not some creep from Xianle who tracked Xie Lian down, Hua Cheng nods and sits up a little straighter.

“I’m a sculptor primarily, but I do a lot of murals for many of the city’s public buildings. I was getting burnt out when I signed up for the farming programme.” And then, because he has questions of his own, “how many years were you running the farm for?”

“Ah, too many years.” She waves her hand as if to chase away the admission of her age. “Thirty-five years or so. I gave it up when my husband died, and it sat empty for a few years until my grandson came back to run it.”

“You must be proud of how well he’s running it.”

Her pleased smile tells him it was the right thing to say.

“Oh, I am. If it had been the other one, gods only know what he would have been farming. I don’t think it would have been food.” She says it so casually in the way only elderly women can get away with, a clear scathing comment on her other grandchild that Hua Cheng has never heard mention of before.

Hua Cheng lets out a laugh before he can stop it, and Xie Lian looks over at them from the kitchen.

“Popo,” he warns, sounding exasperated. “San Lang doesn’t need to know all my embarrassing stories.”

“I was telling him about your cousin.”

Xie Lian drops the rolling pin in his hands to the table. “San Lang definitely doesn’t need to know about him.”

Chen Hui hums, muttering something under her breath that Hua Cheng can’t quite make out, but which definitely sounds like something about in laws.

“You must be homesick, all the way out here so far from the nearest city.” 

Hua Cheng shrugs before he can help it, and immediately he feels her keen gaze land back on him as he uses a spoon to deposit the red beans into the dumpling. “Not really. I live in the city, but I don’t consider it my home.”

“And where do you consider your home?”

“Somewhere where family is. A place where I live alone is not a home, not if I don’t have anyone to share it with.”

He sees the way she smiles at his words, and he definitely sees the way that her gaze shifts from him to looking a little behind him at Xie Lian, who is deep in a conversation with his mother.

“You’re not living alone now.” Chen Hui comments, and this time the expression on her face is definitely a knowing one.

“No. And I’m more at ease in the farmhouse than I ever was in Xianle. It feels more like home.”

“Ah, it sounds as though living with my grandson has done you some good.”

Over in the kitchen, Xie Wan and Xie Lian have started working on the dough, flouring the surface and cutting it into two pieces for them each to work on. Xie Wan glances over at Hua Cheng and Chen Hui, and her expression makes her look as though she finds what she is seeing entertaining.

“Go help your pretty city boy with the dumplings, he looks terrified.” Xie Wan says to him, nudging him in the side and motioning towards Hua Cheng and Chen Hui with a tilt of her head.

“Aha, I think he’s trying to look earnest for popo.” Still, it’s pleasing to see Hua Cheng getting along with his family, no matter how much he’s certain his grandmother is just happy to have someone new to talk to.

“Trying to impress who he hopes is his future grandmother-in-law, I imagine.” His mother sends him a tiny, knowing smile as she says those words far more loudly than necessary. Xie Lian flinches in embarrassment, immediately looking away from his mother.

“I don’t know where you get such ideas.”

He can see her turn to him then, putting her rolling pin down on the table to look at him in what could almost be disbelief.

“So you call him husband just for fun?”

“Mama!”

“Did he tell you to call him that?” She asks, and Xie Lian can feel his cheeks heating as he nods. “So if your grandmother and I used San Lang?” 

Xie Lian covers his face with his hands, fully aware now of how intimate being able to just call Hua Cheng San Lang has been. He has said it in so many ways, in exasperation, embarrassment, whispered it across the centimetres between their faces when they get close, whimpered it in the safety of his bedroom, his body strung tight from dreams of wandering hands. 

He thinks Hua Cheng genuinely did tell Xie Lian to call him the nickname because he is the third son of his parents, but Xie Lian wants to jealously hold onto it, ensure only he can call Hua Cheng by it. He doesn’t know if anyone in Hua Cheng’s life actually does call him by the name San Lang, but deep down Xie Lian wants to be the only one.

Xie Lian doesn’t say anything, but from the look on his mother’s face, he doesn’t have to. She gives him a look, one that mothers are so good at giving, pity without being pitiful. Her hand is warm where she reaches out to cup his cheek, and Xie Lian unconsciously leans into it even as he averts his eyes once more.

“Ah, I raised such a smart and intelligent son. But in this, you really are being quite silly.”

“I’ve known him for barely more than a month, mama.” He whispers, keeping his words as quiet as possible so Hua Cheng cannot hear. To his surprise, his mother shrugs and only wipes a streak of flour off his cheek with her thumb.

“And yet all I’ve heard since he got here is San Lang and I. You’ve spent every day with him for a month, if you stretched that out to one date a week you’d have known him half a year.” Her smile is warm as she pats his cheek before removing her hand. “Just think about it. I haven’t seen you so happy in a long time.”

Think about it? As though he has done anything but since Hua Cheng arrived!

At first he had been worried, wondering if this sudden attachment had only grown because he has been lonely for so long, but there’s plenty of people in the village who he interacts with that he could have become attached to if that were the case. There just is something about Hua Cheng that had drawn him in from the moment he hopped onto the back of the cart the first day they met, something that tells him he would never have had this connection with anyone else. 

The depth of his own feelings has surprised him, if he’s honest. He’d spent his teenage years fending off flirtatious comments without batting an eyelid, but the glint in Hua Cheng’s eye as he teases is enough to set a flame alight in Xie Lian’s belly, flustering him with the extent to which he wants.

Being around Hua Cheng is easy, natural, as though Xie Lian were made to slot into the space by his side. Hua Cheng fills a gap in Xie Lian’s life that he hadn’t known was there before Hua Cheng, but which now looks as though it could only ever have been filled by him. 

Xie Lian has spent years unwilling to allow anyone to scale the walls he had put up to keep himself safe, and yet he had taken it down brick by brick for Hua Cheng before the other man had even known there was one there in the first place. He knows it, viscerally, that there is no one out there with whom he would be so quick to drop his guard, who he could comfortably share his space. They had awoken that morning after they stargazed with Xie Lian curled into Hua Cheng, and he cannot say the urge to keep doing so has ever passed.

And to see him here, in his grandmother’s kitchen, sitting at the table with her and carefully following her folding instructions for rice dumplings, of all things. Xie Lian knows there’s probably a stupidly soft smile on his face as he watches, his popo animated as she tells Hua Cheng what are probably some embarrassing stories from his childhood summers. But when Hua Cheng glances up to meet his gaze, it’s his cheeks that darken with a blush this time, and he focuses back on his folding with more nerves than he had before.

Xie Lian laughs, clapping his hands to be rid of the excess flour, and goes to save Hua Cheng from his grandmother.

“Popo, mama put too much salt in the dough again.”

She sighs at his words, shaking her head with a frown.

“I spent two decades teaching her how to cook, and even with your fancy chefs in the city she still never figured it out.” Chen Hui stands up, abandoning her dumplings to go and help Xie Lian’s mother.

“Gege’s mother sounds like she cooks just as well as he does.”

“Oh, she can’t cook at all, but I put the salt in the dough.” He has the decency to look a little sheepish. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh? What had gege so distracted?” Hua Cheng leans on the table and rests his chin in his palm, smiling in that flirtatious way that makes Xie Lian’s stomach feel all fluttery. Any teasing is cut short though when Hua Cheng realises that he has red bean paste on his fingers, and Xie Lian bursts out laughing when he removes his hand and leaves red fingerprints all up his jaw and cheeks.

“Here, let me get a cloth.” Xie Lian heads back into the kitchen to grab a dishcloth, and feels the heat return to his cheeks when he sees his mother looking at him with a knowing smile. He’s more flustered when he returns to Hua Cheng than he was when he left, but somehow that doesn’t stop him from taking Hua Cheng’s jaw in his fingers and angling his face up.

It doesn’t even strike him as odd or intimate until he sees the way Hua Cheng’s eyes widen and hears his breath catch in his throat, his red eye as bright as the paste on his skin. He can’t let go now though, not when he’s already started, so he continues, wiping the cloth along his skin and rubbing until there’s no more left and his skin is a pretty pink from the friction.

“There.” His voice sounds shaky even to him, and he moves away quickly to sit down in his grandmother’s vacated seat.

“What were you and your mother making?” Hua Cheng asks him, granting him a reprieve from the teasing, but likely only because he’s about as flustered as Xie Lian.

“Hm? Oh, just some dough twists. Popo fries them and dusts them with herbs or sugar, and we have them when we get back.” He starts on making a dumpling, and he’s a little grateful that his grandmother prepared all the ingredients beforehand. He knows his cooking isn’t the best, and he doesn’t want the villagers to think that Hua Cheng is trying to poison them.

“Get back? Aren’t these going to take some time to cook?”

Xie Lian shrugs, reaching for the dates to put inside his dumpling.

“Popo stays and keeps an eye on them, and she joins us later when they’re done. They only take a few hours, and she says it’s too much energy to be out all afternoon.”

Xie Lian ties the first dumpling up, far lumpier than the ones his grandmother has made, and looks over to see how Hua Cheng is doing.

He’s doing badly.

“San Lang, no, you need to - here.” He reaches across the table, leaning in close across the small space to grab his hands. He manoeuvres Hua Cheng’s fingers, showing him where to hold down on the leaves to get them to fold smoothly, and cupping his hand to show him how to hold it securely as he ties it up with the twine. When it’s done, he puts the dumpling with the others and then fondly shakes his head at Hua Cheng.

“You’re doing this badly on purpose. I know my popo wouldn’t have taught you to tie it like this.” Xie Lian reaches over and grabs the twine, which is now a tangle of red wrapped around Hua Cheng’s fingers. “Pull your hand out of it.”

“Gege should hold it as an anchor and I can unravel it.” 

Xie Lian hums in agreement, holding his hand out for the end of the twine, but Hua Cheng seems determined to find a way to make him blush. Instead of just handing Xie Lian the red twine, he takes his hand instead and loosely ties a knot around his ring finger.

“Keep your hand still gege.” He says with a grin, following the twine from his finger to the mess of knotted twine. He unwinds it slowly, each movement tugging at Xie Lian’s hand, but he looks so cheeky that Xie Lian can’t do anything other than just laugh indulgently at him. They’re wasting time, as they need to head into the village soon for the actual festivities, and they still need to make many more rice dumplings before they go.

When the thread is unravelled, the last of the knots unwound, Xie Lian impulsively leans over and ties the other end around Hua Cheng’s ring finger.

“Now we match.” He knows his grin is probably a little silly, but Hua Cheng looks at him with such delight that it’s worth knowing that his mother is probably rolling her eyes in the kitchen with his grandmother.

Grabbing the scissors, he holds back his giggle at Hua Cheng’s frown when he cuts the twine, leaving only the knots around their fingers.

“Here I thought gege was being romantic.” His fingertip traces over the knot around Xie Lian’s finger, and he can’t help the anticipatory shiver that runs down his spine at the touch.

“Somehow I don’t think San Lang would be so easy to tie down.” He grabs another bamboo leaf and makes a cone, his lips twitching in a smile as Hua Cheng sighs and cuts a length of twine for him to use.

“Gege thinks so little of me. I think it would surprise you.”

Perhaps it would. Hua Cheng has a life in the city, a fast-paced life of commissions and more money than Xie Lian could possibly imagine. What could this tiny little village offer him? What could Xie Lian, a disgraced former-idol living off his savings with his only income being the surplus from his farm, possibly offer someone so talented? Xie Lian doesn’t think he could tie him down in anything but his wildest dreams.

“San Lang is having too much fun here. In winter, I think you would be very bored.”

“Would gege not be here?” Hua Cheng asks, spooning rice into his cone of leaves. Xie Lian looks up, a little confused.

“Yes? Why would I not be-“

“Then I would never be bored.” Hua Cheng says, firmly, leaving no room for doubt. Xie Lian swallows thickly, his hand hovering above the bowl of chopped dates, his eyes locked with Hua Cheng’s. It’s as though Hua Cheng knew exactly what he was thinking and is making sure Xie Lian knows what he thinks in no uncertain terms.

“Because you would have the time of your life teasing me, I suppose.” The tension breaks with his words, delivered with a shaky laugh, and Hua Cheng grins.

“Of course, gege.”

They return to their dumplings, tying and wrapping as quickly as they can, until they are distracted once more by Xie Wan approaching the table. She rests her hand on Xie Lian’s shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Are you boys nearly ready?”

“Just a couple more to go. I’m sorry, we got distracted.” Xie Lian explains, glancing up at her. He doesn’t miss the way her eyes flicker between his hand and Hua Cheng’s, where they still have the silly red twine tied around their fingers.

“Mm. I can see that. Too busy flirting at the kitchen table.” 

“Mama!” He drops his dumpling as Hua Cheng laughs, though he can see that thankfully he’s not the only one blushing at his mother’s sudden boldness. 

“Finish up, these will be enough.” She smiles at them both, patting Xie Lian’s hair affectionately before rejoining his grandmother in the kitchen.

Xie Lian sighs, feeling the heat moving up his chest and burning his cheeks. He can feel Hua Cheng’s eyes on him, but he refuses to look up and meet his gaze, knowing that he’ll only be teased if he does so.

At least in the village he’s likely to get some kind of reprieve from this!

Chapter Text

It takes them a few minutes to get ready to leave, passing over the rice dumplings to Chen Hui in the kitchen and then trying to find all of their things. It's a little chaotic, in a good way.

Watching Xie Lian with his mother gives Hua Cheng a warm, fond feeling. He’s so attentive to her, as though he’s the mother, not Xie Wan, grabbing her shawl off the hook and draping it over her shoulders.

She meets Hua Cheng’s eyes when Xie Lian goes to find her hat to keep her protected from the sun, shaking her head fondly. 

“It’s how he shows that he cares.” Her voice is a quiet murmur, her smile returning when Xie Lian comes back with the hat and a covered basket. 

From experience, Hua Cheng agrees. He’s lost count of the number of times Xie Lian has fussed over whether Hua Cheng has enough water, or if he is wearing enough sunscreen. One time, weeks earlier, they had spent an hour childishly forcing Xie Lian’s big hat on each other because Hua Cheng had forgotten his own, and Xie Lian insisted that Hua Cheng should take his.

“Are you ready to go?” Xie Lian asks them both, clicking his tongue after to get Ruoye’s attention. She ambles out of the kitchen with her tail wagging, having clearly been fed a few plain noodles by Chen Hui. The old lady follows Ruoye, and all three speak at once.

“See you soon, mama.”

“Bye popo!”

“Thank you for lunch, popo.”

Xie Lian grins as Chen Hui waves them off, shaking her head and ushering them out of her home. They leave through the back door to the garden, where Xie Lian spots some mugwort left on the table and immediately brightens.

“Oh! San Lang, here.” He reaches up and tucks a stem of mugwort leaves behind Hua Cheng’s ear. “Since we didn’t hang any up at the farmhouse.” 

Hua Cheng watches him, stepped up on his tiptoes and so close that if Xie Lian turned his head their noses would brush. He fiddles with Hua Cheng’s hair until the mugwort is tucked in securely behind his ear, and then he hands Hua Cheng the rest and turns around.

“Can San Lang put some in my hair? Just through the bun.” 

Hua Cheng nods, even though Xie Lian can’t actually see him. His mouth is suddenly dry, even though this is such an innocent action. Xie Lian’s hair is long and lovely, though it is so often tied up at the back of his head for practicality that Hua Cheng rarely sees it down, and he’s never touched it.

It’s as soft as he had imagined it would be, smooth and inky on his fingertips as he loosens the bun enough to poke the ends of the mugwort through his hair. Once it’s through he winds it around the hair tie and the hair, until it looks as though he has placed a hairpiece over Xie Lian’s bun. It’s not likely to last, and the ends are sticking out, but for now they’re not going anywhere.

Hua Cheng lets his hands drop, unsure where to put them now that he’s fixed Xie Lian’s hair. It’s only when Xie Lian looks over his shoulder at him that he smiles and nods, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him, somewhere, anywhere.

“All done, gege.”

“Thank you, San Lang.” 

At the very least, Xie Lian returns his soft smile until Xie Wan clears her throat, raising her brows when they look at her and clearly struggling to stop her lips from quirking into a knowing smirk.

“Coming, boys?”

They join her immediately, settling on either side of her with such ease that it’s as though they planned it beforehand. If she is surprised, she does not show it, only compliments them on the mugwort in their hair before allowing them to lead her out of the garden and onto the street. Ruoye darts ahead repeatedly and then returns, eager for head pats, and it slows them down each time.

Hua Cheng learns that Xie Wan really is a quiet woman, content to observe and listen as she walks in between Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. They’re not walking far, only the couple of minutes that it takes to get to the centre of the village, but Xie Lian walks almost elbow-to-elbow with her as he chats with Hua Cheng.

It’s nice to see him so comfortable with his mother. Hua Cheng feels something in him shift, the worry and the sadness that had been eating at him, thinking Xie Lian had been secluded and lonely in this village for so long. It’s replaced with something soft, and it makes him happy to see that Xie Lian has been happy.

When they reach the village square, Hua Cheng is surprised to find that there are numerous chairs and tables set up around the fountain. It’s the first time Hua Cheng has seen it turned on, and there are children splashing around in it, laughing and playing and drenching each other with water.

There’s a surprising number of villagers here - more than Hua Cheng had thought there to be in the village, and with a number of them around his and Xie Lian’s age. Mrs Luo, the lady from the grocery store, sits on a shorter table with some of the children, helping them to make colourful pouches and fill them with dried herbs. 

It’s a relaxed, fun atmosphere, but still very different to what Hua Cheng has experienced in Xianle. It feels more sociable, even though there are drastically fewer people, and much less of a focus on activities. He’s only ever attended the festival with He Xuan before, who himself only attended for the street food vendors, but this already feels better, nicer, even if there are no colourful light shows or boat races.

Ruoye runs ahead and disappears into the crowd of people, as Xie Wan leads them to a quieter table beneath the canopy of a large tree. Hua Cheng can see that there are little lights strung up in the branches, waiting to be turned on once it gets dark.

“We don’t have to stay long if you don’t want to.” Xie Lian says to Hua Cheng as his mother leaves her basket on her seat and leaves them briefly to head over to one of the tables with food and drink.

“I want to stay. I’m having a lot of fun with gege’s family.” He leans in to say it, bumping Xie Lian’s shoulder companionably. 

“I’m glad.” Clearly pleased, Xie Lian relaxes a little, leaning into Hua Cheng as he looks around for his mother. She returns only a moment later, bringing three small cups of realgar wine that she sets down on the table.

“One cup each, at least.” Xie Wan says, and they both take a cup and thank her. Xie Lian drinks his quickly, his expression telling Hua Cheng that he only does it for tradition and certainly not for the taste. Sipping his own, Hua Cheng looks over at the food table.

“Should we have brought food?”

Eyes widening, Xie Lian shakes his head, but it is his mother who answers. Her laugh is soft and clear as she takes a drink.

“We’re not allowed to. My mother is, which is why she’s bringing the zongzi later. But Xie Lian and I have been politely asked not to bring food to any festivals.” 

“We made a few people sick with our soup six years ago.” Xie Lian adds a little miserably, looking down at his empty cup of wine. The sight of him looking a little dejected shouldn’t make Hua Cheng laugh, but he does.

“Well, I like gege’s food. It’s inventive. I think they don’t know what they’re missing.” 

“San Lang…” Xie Lian protests, but it brings a small, embarrassed smile back to his face, and Hua Cheng feels victorious for it. 

The afternoon passes amiably, with easy conversation between the three of them as the music starts and the atmosphere gets louder, a little more boisterous. They share enough food from the main table that Hua Cheng isn’t sure he’ll be able to move for the foreseeable future, whilst Xie Lian clutches his stomach and laughs at Hua Cheng until there are tears in the corners of his eyes.

Xie Wan spends time chatting to another woman who sits next to her to catch up, leaving the two of them to talk and recover from overeating. Their heads bent together, they make an intimate enough sight that the other woman raises her brows at Xie Wan, who only smiles and waves her hand as if to communicate that she will update her another time. 

Of course, neither of them witness this.

Ruoye waddles past the table at one point with a child in green dungarees sitting on her back as though she’s a horse, fingers twisted tightly in her thick fur, but she looks as though she’s having the time of her life. Hua Cheng looks at Xie Lian, slightly alarmed.

“Guzi.” He explains. “He’s an orphan, but everyone in the village pitches in to look after him. Ban Yue and Pei Su will be watching him.” 

And sure enough, Ban Yue follows as if on cue, her arms held out to catch the little boy if he falls.

After a few hours, Chen Hui arrives with a large basket of warm rice dumplings, still steaming as she places them on the table.

Not long after, someone rings a handheld bell and shouts that it’s time for the adults’ egg competition, and several people begin to rise from their tables.

“Oh! I forgot, you should try it San Lang!” Xie Lian beams at him and digs around in the basket he brought, looking thrilled when he holds out a little carton. There’s one smooth brown egg in it, and Hua Cheng raises his brows at Xie Lian in surprise.

“Gege?”

“The children did theirs at noon, we missed it, but the adults hold one too, just as a race to see who can balance it first. There’s no point in me trying as I always come last. Whoever wins is said to have the best luck, and I definitely don’t have that, aha.”

Hua Cheng takes it, looking at the faded colour on the carton, and feels a little warm at the realisation that sweeps through him. “One of ours?”

Xie Lian laughs. “Xiao Bao’s. She was sitting on it in the box this morning, so I thought maybe she laid you a lucky egg.”

Hua Cheng grins, a full happy smile that he knows was once almost utterly foreign to him. He wants to hug Xie Lian, swoop down and cheekily ask for a kiss for luck, but that feels like too much, too soon. He is acutely aware of the presence of the red twine on his ring finger, his eye constantly finding its match on Xie Lian, like a beacon he cannot help but be drawn to. 

“Let’s try it out then, gege.” He gets up from the table, throwing Xie Lian a grin and lining up with some of the other villagers in front of the fountain.

“Do you think he’ll do it?” Xie Wan asks her son, leaning across the table to get a better look at Hua Cheng as he kneels down on the slightly uneven pavement with his egg. Xie Lian’s eyes don’t stray from Hua Cheng as he nods, his expression unbearably fond.

“He’s very lucky.”

And sure enough, he is. It takes him no more than twenty seconds to balance the egg properly once it starts, his brows furrowed and his lower lip tugged between his teeth. When he stands back up, his eyes immediately search for Xie Lian, and he grins when their gazes meet.

“See?” Xie Lian says to his mother, as some of the villagers keep trying to balance their eggs and some get up and give Hua Cheng boisterous congratulations.

“If only he was so lucky in love.” Chen Hui mutters with a conspiratorial grin that she shares with Xie Wan.

“Popo! He…I -“ He cuts himself off, refusing to either refute her or agree with her as she laughs and places some of the warm dumplings on the table for them to eat. She takes the basket and gets up as Hua Cheng returns, congratulating him with a hand on his arm before she goes to find some of her friends.

“I knew you’d win.” Xie Lian grins at him, taking the egg back from Hua Cheng and putting it in the carton in the basket. “San Lang should get a prize.”

“Hm. Gege hasn’t given me much time to think. What is he willing to give me for my prize?”

“It would depend on what you ask for.” Xie Lian’s head tilts back with a laugh, carefree, exposing the column of his throat. Hua Cheng does his best not to stare it. Instead, he leans in close and bumps Xie Lian’s shoulder with his own, grinning cheekily all the while.

“What if I want a kiss as my prize? After all, gege gave me the egg.”

“Technically it was Xiao Bao.” Xie Lian’s lips are twitching a little as he struggles to keep his face neutral. He’s not succeeding, as Hua Cheng can see his smirk.

“I don’t want a kiss from Xiao Bao.” They both pause as Hua Cheng’s words register with Xie Lian, or rather, the words he didn’t say. He doesn’t want to kiss Xiao Bao, but he does want Xie Lian to kiss him.

He watches as Xie Lian’s eyes widen, and for a moment Hua Cheng can see the indecision, the way he leans forward in his seat just a little, as though he’s genuinely contemplating how rash it would be to move in and kiss Hua Cheng. His eyes flicker down to Hua Cheng’s mouth, his lips parting enough to let his pink tongue dart out to moisten his lower lip. 

Hua Cheng is transfixed, holding his breath, his whole body strung tight like a bowstring as he waits for Xie Lian to make his choice.

“Hua Cheng!” 

They jolt apart as though they’ve been struck, as Xie Lian begins to blush and Hua Cheng looks up to find Chen Hui approaching with the huge wicker basket of rice dumplings. “Come, come, help me pass these around, you made them after all.”

“Of course, popo.” He gets up from the table slowly, watching Xie Lian as he refuses to look up and meet his gaze. His earlier smirk is gone, and he picks absentmindedly at the rice dumpling in front of him, his nails staining red from the paste. Chen Hui looks pleased at his acquiescence, and he joins her with one last look back at Xie Lian.

He keeps his eyes averted until the last second, when he looks up and meets Hua Cheng’s gaze. Though his cheeks are definitely red, there’s frustration there, and Hua Cheng doesn’t think it’s directed at him. Before he can think on it further, Chen Hui hooks her hand in his elbow and pulls him away.

Back at the table, Xie Lian looks down at the forgotten rice dumpling in his hands, frowning at the sticky red bean paste that is coating his fingers. He gives it a frustrated stab with his fingers, his lips twisting into a scowl. He would have done it, leaned across the distance and pressed his lips to Hua Cheng’s mouth in a kiss.

It would have been an excellent way to get Hua Cheng back for all of his flirtatious teasing, but it would have also been satisfying for him, to finally learn the taste of Hua Cheng’s mouth, the feel of his soft lips against Xie Lian’s own chapped ones.

Aware that he probably looks like a sulky teenager, he messes with his dumpling until it’s little more than a crumble of rice and paste inside the bamboo leaf, taking out his disappointment on it. If only he’d been braver, more confident, more sure of himself.

It’s only when he feels his mother gently tap his knee with her foot under the table that he looks up from the mess he’s made.

Fuck. He’d completely forgotten she was there. His own mother!

She stares at him until he meets her eyes, and when he does her eyebrows raise.

Xie Lian immediately doesn’t like where this is going.

“He asked you to kiss him.” She starts, untying and breaking open her dumpling with her fingers without getting them sticky. Her gaze flits over to look at Hua Cheng before falling back on her son, and there’s something akin to exasperation in her expression. “And you told him to kiss your chicken instead.”

Groaning, Xie Lian folds his arms on the table and drops his head, hiding his face in the sleeves of his cardigan. 

They stay late enough that the lights come on, encompassing the village in a pretty little glow from all the red and yellow lights strung through the trees. They walk Xie Wan and Chen Hui back to their home after the sun has started to set, and to Hua Cheng’s surprise he receives warm hugs from both women, something which clearly makes Xie Lian more pleased than he’s willing to admit. He is, perhaps, a little awkward in returning their hug, but neither of them seem to think that it reflects on them, and they wave Hua Cheng and Xie Lian off until they're out of sight.

“I had a really nice time, gege.” Hua Cheng says in the quiet of the truck, feeling far more full and content than he has in a long time. It seeps down into his very bones, a lazy sort of happiness and contentment that he doesn’t think he’s ever felt before. Xie Lian looks over at him from the driver’s seat, his expression equally as happy.

“It’s not as big or as extravagant as it was in Xianle-“

“It’s better.” Hua Cheng cuts in, tone firm, and Xie Lian grins, the set of his body relaxing.

“I’m glad San Lang had fun.”

They head straight towards the farmhouse when they arrive back at the farm, after a minute or so of trying to coax Ruoye from her comfortable sleeping spot in the bed of the truck. She’s covered in sticky red fingerprints, which only makes them both giggle when her heavy body pushes past them to seek out her usual spot in the farmhouse courtyard.

It’s only when they’ve descended to the terrace level that has the farmhouse that they stop, both of them looking down over to the barn. It’s barely visible in the waxing crescent of the moon, and Hua Cheng takes a step towards the edge of the terrace with a cheeky grin on his face.

“Where are you going?” Xie Lian asks, a little confused. They’d put the sheep and chickens away before they left, because Xie Lian had ended up too worried about leaving them without Ruoye, so there’s no reason to go down there.

Hua Cheng’s grin widens, and Xie Lian feels his stomach begin to flutter again. “I’m going to go get my prize.”

“San Lang…” Xie Lian can already feel his blush coming back, but at his words Hua Cheng only puts on a forlorn expression.

“Gege told me I had to get my kiss from Xiao Bao, so I’m going to.” Hua Cheng revels in his teasing, turning again to look down at the barn. He’s stopped by Xie Lian grabbing at the sleeve of his shirt, tugging him back.

“You can’t wake them up.”

The way Hua Cheng smirks at Xie Lian only tells him that he’s played right into what Hua Cheng wants.

“But if I can’t get my prize from Xiao Bao, gege, then that would mean I don’t get a prize at all.” He leans in low, delighted that he can see the flushed tips of Xie Lian’s ears even in the dim light. “Unless gege will give me the kiss that I asked for?”

He grins, charming, teasing, his hands behind his back like some kind of playful youth rather than the mischievous devil he actually is. Xie Lian looks at him, the cocky grin, the knowing light in his eyes and the way he cocks his head to the side. He wants Xie Lian to become flustered, stutter out an excuse so that he can run another circle around him with his pretty words that are guaranteed to make Xie Lian pink, but which also make him want. 

So Xie Lian smiles, leaning up, close enough to see the way Hua Cheng's eyes widen in surprise.

And then he kisses him.

Chapter Text

There’s a moment of utter stillness in the air, as Xie Lian’s only thoughts swing from a victorious ha to realising that Hua Cheng’s lips really are as soft and nice as they look.

And then he realises that he did it, he kissed Hua Cheng, but Hua Cheng isn’t doing anything. His lips are unmoving against Xie Lian’s own, his body rigid where Xie Lian presses into him. Panicking, he pulls back a little, wobbly on his feet and worried that he’s just ruined everything, that Hua Cheng really was just teasing.

It spurs Hua Cheng into moving, as he steps forward and seamlessly fits their lips together again, one arm wrapping tight around Xie Lian’s lower back and pulling his body in to press against his. Xie Lian is kissed gently at first, soft kisses that make his stomach swoop with anticipation and the sheer thrill of it, his arms winding around Hua Cheng’s neck to pull himself even closer.

Hua Cheng’s other hand brushes against the nape of his neck, his palm warm where he cups the back of Xie Lian’s head. The kiss deepens, as Hua Cheng nips at Xie Lian’s lower lip and swallows his gasp, his tongue sliding smoothly against Xie Lian’s own in a way that makes him moan. 

It’s messy and uncoordinated, neither of them sure if they’re doing it right, but too caught up in each other to really care. Hua Cheng’s hand slides down Xie Lian’s neck, his fingers curling beneath his chin to tilt his head back.

They trade soft, open-mouthed kisses, Xie Lian struggling to remain standing with how he holds onto Hua Cheng. One hand has slipped down to rest on his chest, but the other has wound its way into his hair, his fingers winding through the short black strands with the palm of his hand warm on the back of Hua Cheng’s neck. Every kiss sends his stomach fluttering, an abundance of butterflies taking flight with every brush of Hua Cheng’s tongue, until Xie Lian is forced to pull away to catch his breath.

Hua Cheng follows him, stealing another kiss before he frowns. His hand is possessive in the small of Xie Lian’s back, and the fingers curled under his chin tilt him up to look at Hua Cheng.

“Has gege had enough?”

“We can’t stay here all night, San Lang.” Xie Lian laughs softly against Hua Cheng’s lips, the puff of his breath intermingling with Hua Cheng’s before he’s kissed again, a quick peck on his lips.

“Hm. I disagree, gege.”

He can’t fight the laugh that bubbles up out of his chest, warm and happy as he gently cups Hua Cheng’s face in his hands and holds him still for a long, sweet kiss. He feels happy, ridiculously so, his rabbit-heartbeat loud in his own ears.

Hua Cheng’s arm tightens around his waist, holding him in place as he leans down and peppers kisses over Xie Lian’s nose and cheeks. Xie Lian giggles, holding onto Hua Cheng’s shoulders and hiding his face in his shirt as he laughs, hard enough that his stomach hurts.

“San Lang! Bedtime, or we won’t be up on time in the morning. You wouldn’t want to upset Xiao Bao after she laid you a lucky egg, would you?”

Hua Cheng pretends to think on it, tilting his head to the side before sighing low and heavily.

“Gege is right.” He looks forlorn, exaggerating his sadness at being separated, as though they’ve always been like this, as though they haven’t been purposely holding back for weeks out of fear of giving away their feelings.

Xie Lian steps away, immediately missing the heat of the closeness of Hua Cheng’s body against his own. There’s a soft brush of skin against his arm as Hua Cheng shifts, tangling his fingers through Xie Lian’s own and tugging him in the direction of the farmhouse. Even in the dim light, Xie Lian can see that they wear matching smiles, and he leans into Hua Cheng’s arm as he walks.

They say little on the walk over to the farmhouse, both of them basking in the change between them, the shift in the atmosphere from friendly to romantic, the handholding that means something and the kisses given freely. Xie Lian catches himself staring up at Hua Cheng more than once, and every time he meets Hua Cheng’s gaze.

It’s only once they’re inside the farmhouse that Xie Lian lets go of Hua Cheng, and the first feelings of awkwardness descend on him. What does he do now, he worries as he locks the farmhouse door. Bid him goodnight as usual, as though nothing happened?

Definitely not, but if he kisses him goodnight he thinks they might descend into more than just kisses, and he really needs to get his thoughts in order before anything like that happens.

“Goodnight, San Lang.” He settles for squeezing his hand, but already it feels wrong, as though it’s not enough. Hua Cheng tugs on his hand before he can let go, and when he looks up Hua Cheng steps closer.

“Is gege not going to give me a goodnight kiss?” Hua Cheng’s lips are puffy from where he has already been kissed, and the sight of them pursed in a false pout is enough to make Xie Lian want to kiss him again. 

So he does, leaning across and catching his lips in another kiss, gentle and lingering before he pulls away with what must be the silliest smile on his face. Hua Cheng moves on instinct, chasing his lips for one last kiss.

Xie Lian grants him it, before he gently pushes on Hua Cheng’s chest.

Gods, he thinks, it’s so hard to pull away. A few kisses and he’s suddenly finding it agonising to tear himself away, but he knows that they need to sleep on this, sleep apart and clear their heads, if only for the sake of the animals in the morning.

“Goodnight, San Lang.” He tries again, struggling to keep the grin from overtaking his entire expression. Hua Cheng does grin, unabashed, and it warms Xie Lian down to his core to see it.

Closing his bedroom door on Hua Cheng is almost painful, it truly is. Still, with the door safely closed behind him, Xie Lian leans against it and muffles his laugh with his fist, an outrageously lovesick grin on his face. He feels giddy, close to kicking his feet in happiness.

He kissed Hua Cheng! Hua Cheng kissed him back, and it felt like he meant it. All these weeks of teasing, and it’s satisfying to know that he succeeded in surprising him.

He goes to bed that night with the grin still on his face, fingers pressed to his lips as his mind conjures up scenarios of all the lovely ways this could go.

As usual, Xie Lian is up well before Hua Cheng the next morning. It gives him time to calm his racing thoughts, and a chance to make breakfast before Hua Cheng wakes up and finds a way to fluster him.

Not that Hua Cheng cannot fluster him even when he isn’t there - Xie Lian nearly chops his fingers off when cutting up the fruits, and he’s halfway through scrambling some tofu when he realises he was aiming to make a sweet breakfast, not a savoury.

When Hua Cheng finally exits his bedroom at five-thirty, he heads straight into the kitchen. He’s changed his routine the last week or so, brushing his teeth and washing up after breakfast rather than before. It doesn’t change their morning plans as he’s still ready to leave the house on time, but the sight of him straight out of bed does things to Xie Lian. 

He’s resisted it, so far. Hua Cheng leaves his room with his short hair wildly sticking up in all directions, his demeanour sleep-slow and his lips puffy from where his face has likely been smooshed into his arm or the pillow. It’s distracting, because Xie Lian wants to run his fingers through his hair and smooth it down, see if it’s as silky as it looks, but he’s been able to resist. But with the change between them now, he’s not sure he can hold out.

This morning, though, Hua Cheng pads over to where Xie Lian is cooking their congee over the stove, and hooks his chin over Xie Lian’s shoulder.

The sudden warmth at his back, the arms that wrap around him like he’s a full-body pillow, and the sleepy hum from Hua Cheng as he looks down at what Xie Lian is cooking, is enough to wake other parts of his body up.

“Morning, gege.”

It hasn’t even been twelve hours since they kissed, but Xie Lian leans back into the warmth of Hua Cheng, already smiling as he stirs the rice.

“Good morning, San Lang. Did you sleep well?”

Hua Cheng nods, his chin digging into Xie Lian’s shoulder. He nuzzles behind Xie Lian’s ear, sending a flash of heat through Xie Lian at the contact.

“I did. I dreamt that gege spoiled me, giving me endless kisses under the night sky when this San Lang only asked for one.” Hua Cheng leans back a little, catching Xie Lian’s eye, and his grin is cheeky, teasing. “But then I woke up and realised it wasn’t a dream.”

Xie Lian feels his cheeks heating up. Gods, it sounds so shameless when he says it like that, as though he had lost control and kissed Hua Cheng senseless when the man only wanted one kiss. 

“I think San Lang was a little more involved than that.” He manages to say it with a straight face, and catches Hua Cheng’s grin out of the corner of his eye.

“Mn. Did you have a good sleep?”

Did he have a good sleep? Yes, he did, with such a lovely dream that he woke up harder than he ever has been in his life. He’d tried to privately deal with it in the bathroom and succeeded, so he has no idea why he’s already feeling his cock hardening in interest just at the feel of Hua Cheng wrapped around him. 

He’s in serious trouble if a hug is getting him excited.

“I had a similar dream to San Lang. Though I remember you teasing me all night for a kiss until I gave in.”

Behind him, Hua Cheng slumps at his words, his weight heavier against Xie Lian’s back and his arms tightening around his waist. Xie Lian turns his head to look at him, his eyebrows raising, only to laugh at the faraway expression on Hua Cheng’s face.

“Gege only kissed me to shut me up.” He sighs dramatically, hiding his face in the back of Xie Lian’s shoulder.

“I did not!” Xie Lian protests, even though he knows he’s walking into a trap, even though his cheeks are so red that they feel like they’re on fire. “I liked kissing you.”

Hua Cheng lifts his head immediately, and it would almost be comical if not for the way he smiles at Xie Lian, like a cat that has finally cornered its prey. 

“Oh? Does gege want me to give him more kisses?”

Xie Lian doesn’t say anything, which must be enough of an answer. There’s a low chuckle from Hua Cheng that Xie Lian can feel against his back, and Hua Cheng’s hold around him tightens. Xie Lian can feel himself tensing, knowing that Hua Cheng only has to lower his hands a little more and he’ll feel Xie Lian, will discover exactly how his morning kisses are affecting him.

There’s a puff of air against his hair, and then Hua Cheng noses the long strands until the cool tip of his nose presses against the nape of Xie Lian’s neck. Heat prickles through him at the feeling, his stomach already beginning to flutter, and then Hua Cheng presses a warm kiss to his skin.

“Gege smells good.” Hua Cheng whispers against his skin, punctuating his point with more kisses, slowly moving up the back of his neck and pressing one last one behind Xie Lian’s ear. Xie Lian feels goosebumps rise along his skin as each kiss sends sparks down his spine. His cock becomes impossible to ignore between his legs, aching and growing harder with each press of lips to his skin.

Instinctively, Xie Lian lets his head roll to the side, making it easier for Hua Cheng to keep kissing his neck.

Which he does, happily. Xie Lian allows himself to get lost in the sweet pleasure of it, distracted by the fire which slowly begins to burn in his belly. Hua Cheng almost certainly knows that he’s hard and aching in his pants, and Xie Lian knows that Hua Cheng is the same - he can feel the solid length of his cock against his ass. He wants to push back into it, but he won’t, if only because he can tell already that it’s bigger than he thought, and confirming the size of it might just make it impossible to concentrate all day. Hua Cheng’s lips are distracting enough, kissing a hot trail from his collarbone up to the underside of his jaw, fluttering over his cheekbones to press at his temple.

It’s only when he smells the rice burning in the pan that he comes back down to reality, trying to push away any thoughts fuelling his erection and trying to save the congee. He jerks forward, grabbing the forgotten wooden spoon and nudging Hua Cheng towards the sink.

“San Lang, can you get me some water?” 

Hua Cheng obliges, untangling himself from Xie Lian and moving to the sink as Xie Lian frantically scrapes the rice from the bottom of the pan. Hua Cheng pours the water straight into the pan from a jug, and both of them watch as lots of little black bits of burnt rice start floating.

The teasing stops at that point, both of them trying to save the congee from its burned fate. Hua Cheng sets the table for breakfast as Xie Lian resigns himself to a burnt meal. Even he has to admit, as he’s serving the food into the bowls, that it really is just his luck to burn the first meal he makes for Hua Cheng after they kissed.

As they sit at the table, Hua Cheng moves his chair so that he’s sitting to Xie Lian’s right, rather than opposite him. Once they’re seated, he hooks his ankle behind Xie Lian’s leg, grabbing his attention.

“You looked pensive, fixing the congee.” He says, and Xie Lian’s heart melts a little at the touch of insecurity that he can detect in his voice. Did Hua Cheng think he was upset because he burned their breakfast? Is he worried that Xie Lian is having second thoughts?

The idea is ludicrous, but Xie Lian has spent a while thinking about this thing between them this morning, before Hua Cheng woke up. They need to talk, and soon. He doesn’t want any miscommunication between them when it comes to this.

“We need to talk about this, San Lang.” Xie Lian tries to keep his tone gentle, encouraging, so that Hua Cheng does not immediately think the worst.

He’s not sure he succeeds, since Hua Cheng’s shoulders suddenly become tense, and there’s a flash of something that looks awfully like fear in his expression. Xie Lian rushes to speak, wanting that expression gone.

“San Lang. I -“ He struggles to swallow, uncertain of the right words to say. He doesn’t want to give too much away, internally certain that the feelings he wants to convey are too strong to just blurt out, but he doesn’t have the way with words that Hua Cheng seems to naturally have. “I really like you, San Lang.”

Xie Lian cringes once the words are out. Is he a teenage boy confessing his first crush? He sounds like it. He reaches out to grab Hua Cheng’s hand, frustrated at his inability to say how he feels when he was the one to initiate this conversation in the first place.

Hua Cheng’s fingers tighten around his own. “I like gege too.” He says slowly, as though he’s still unsure as to where this conversation is going. Xie Lian can’t help but sigh, fearful of being misunderstood.

“I’ve been falling for you, romantically, since the day we met.” There! That has to get the point across, right? Without giving too much about the depth of his feelings away?

Hua Cheng stares at him for a moment, and Xie Lian can almost see the cogs turning in his head. He can definitely see the appealing pink blush that is gracing Hua Cheng’s cheeks.

But then Hua Cheng leans across the gap between them to kiss Xie Lian, his hand cupping Xie Lian’s jaw to hold him still.

It’s nothing like their kisses the night before. It’s urgent, as though Hua Cheng is trying to push every bit of his feelings for Xie Lian into it, slow and deep and so heady that Xie Lian squirms in his chair, wanting to crawl out of it and into Hua Cheng’s lap.

Xie Lian is panting when Hua Cheng pulls away, struggling to catch his breath until Hua Cheng gently makes him look over at him, guiding Xie Lian with the hand still on his jaw.

“Gege, I’m pretty sure I’ve been falling in love with you since you got on that cart the first day we met.” Of course, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, Hua Cheng is certain there is no falling - he has been in love with Xie Lian since that first day, and it has only grown stronger with each day. He just doesn’t want to scare Xie Lian with the depths of those feelings.

Xie Lian still feels a little dazed from the kiss, but those words are enough to bring him back to the conversation, shocking him with their honesty.

“Me too.” He breathes out, feeling relief settle deep into his bones. That Hua Cheng feels the same, had felt the instant connection that Xie Lian had felt, makes him smile wider than he has in years. 

Half of his concerns, the irrational fear that maybe Hua Cheng really was just teasing, or simply wanted something casual, are already quelled, but there are other things that need to be discussed. The most obvious, and the most painful, is what to do when summer ends.

“It won’t be easy. What do we do when you have to go back to the city?”

“We deal with that when it comes to it.” Hua Cheng shuffles closer on his chair, and his next words are so quiet that they’re almost a whisper. “Gege, I’ve never felt like this for anyone before. I’ve never wanted to be with anyone before I met you. I don’t want to hold back if you don’t want to.”

Irrationally, given the weight of everything Hua Cheng has just said, Xie Lian feels a flash of relief to know that Hua Cheng truly is as new to this as Xie Lian is. He has never been the jealous type, but when it comes to Hua Cheng he is discovering that he really can become it. 

Just like at the festival the day before, when he’d admitted to himself that he wants to be the only person allowed to call Hua Cheng by the name San Lang, he can admit to himself that in this he wants to be the only person allowed to see Hua Cheng like this. Given their ages, any previous partner would have been understandable, but Xie Lian cannot deny the flash of smugness that he feels, knowing that only he has ever seen Hua Cheng after he’s been kissed, that if this goes any further it’ll be something they’ll only ever have shared with each other. 

“I don’t want to hold back either, San Lang.”

“Then don’t.” His smile is soft, a far cry from his usual smirks or cheeky grins. It’s a beautiful smile, Xie Lian thinks, softer from being secure in the knowledge that his feelings are reciprocated. Of course, it doesn’t last long, and the soft, vulnerable edge to their conversation takes a turn when Xie Lian speaks again.

“We do have to be careful, though. I’m technically in a position of power over you-“

“That sounds fun-“

“San Lang! You can’t tease, you need to promise me that if you’re ever uncomfortable or, or if you want to leave, you’ll tell me. I don’t want you to feel like you’re forced into this because you’re living in my house.”

Hua Cheng leans back, his chin resting in his hand. He’s slouching a little, so he’s below eye-level with Xie Lian, which just makes him even more distracting.

“What if I want gege to force me into things?”

Xie Lian feels his face turn scarlet, and the erection he’d fought so hard to tamp down makes an eager return as his cock throbs between his legs.

“This isn’t a conversation for the breakfast table.” Xie Lian manages to say, picking up his spoon and immediately shoving a mouthful of the congee into his mouth. It’s still hot, and so sticky that he’s sure he’s burning the roof of his mouth. He’s too stubborn to admit it, though.

“But this is a conversation we can have?” Hua Cheng continues his teasing, tangling his legs further with Xie Lian’s beneath the table. 

But Xie Lian is firm, wanting to guarantee Hua Cheng’s comfort in the farmhouse, at the very least. “Promise me, San Lang. Please.”

Hua Cheng sighs dramatically, taking up his spoon and mixing some of the fruit into his congee. 

“I promise, gege. We don’t need to worry, though.” 

The words make him feel a little warm and giddy inside, knowing that Hua Cheng has such confidence in them, truly believes that they can do it. Xie Lian hopes that they can, because he has never felt like this about anyone either. 

"Come on." He says, still feeling warm, his legs still tangled with Hua Cheng's beneath the table. He leans across to give Hua Cheng one last kiss, a quick peck to his cheek, but Hua Cheng moves at the last moment to secure a kiss to his lips instead. 

"San Lang!" Xie Lian laughs, because of course he can only giggle at the cheekiness of Hua Cheng. No one has ever made him laugh like this wonderful man does. "We've got plenty to do this morning, eat your breakfast."

"If gege insists." 

Xie Lian watches him as he begins to eat, anxious that the food will taste awful, that their lovely morning of kisses and confessions will be marred by Xie Lian’s atrocious cooking. Hua Cheng chews slowly -which Xie Lian already considers a bad sign, chewy congee! - and looks contemplative as he eats, and when he swallows his lips turn up into a familiar smirk.

“It’s nice and nutty, gege, though maybe it needed a little less time on the stove.”

Xie Lian narrows his eyes at him.

“And whose fault is that, San Lang!” 

Chapter Text

They settle into a new routine, one that allows them to behave more intimately with each other than they already were. 

They’ve always been tactile, but now the touches are lower, a hand on the small of the other’s back. Xie Lian tangles their fingers together when they head back to the farmhouse on an evening, and Hua Cheng feels free to dramatically hang off Xie Lian when he’s pretending to whine about being overworked. Evenings are Hua Cheng’s favourite, when he sits on the couch working, creating new designs for his murals inspired by the farm and its surroundings. Xie Lian had tucked himself into Hua Cheng’s side that first night after they kissed, his e-reader in his hands, as though he had always done so, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Most nights he reads, which is distracting enough for Hua Cheng given that Xie Lian really looks good wearing his glasses, but others he is content to curl up and watch what Hua Cheng is doing on his tablet.

And, of course, there is the kissing.

It’s almost impossible to get any farm work done, but they manage. Xie Lian refuses to put the chickens and sheep at any risk, so they’re out of the house and at the barn at six every morning, and herding them back in at six every evening. Xie Lian is also fairly strict with sticking to their plans every day, so all the tasks get completed on time, even if a day often ends with them hurriedly picking produce from the terraces, their lips red and puffy and both of them achingly hard for each other.

The nights where Xie Lian reads on the couch, so close to Hua Cheng, nearly always end with Hua Cheng over him, his body a gentle weight over his. Hua Cheng loves those nights, being able to delicately remove Xie Lian’s glasses and pepper his face with kisses, as they change from playful presses of lips to skin into meaningful, long kisses. There’s just something about it, the two of them in the living room, wholly wrapped up in each other with the lights low and nothing but the sound of the other in their ears.

It’s a strange but pleasant newness, sharing such intimacy, such closeness, but they’re both clearly thriving in it. Hua Cheng had always imagined relationships to be awkward for those first few weeks, but they have slotted into each other's lives as though there had always been an empty space there just waiting for the other to fill it.

The time on the farm passes quickly, both of them too caught up in each other to take much notice of the days that pass, the routine that feels so natural to them.

But those days begin to turn into weeks, passing by faster than Hua Cheng can catch them, and before he knows it he’s waking up one morning to a truly sarcastic, caustic text from He Xuan congratulating him for being more than halfway through his stupid, harebrained idea.

A second text from Yin Yu is kinder, asking how he’s found his time on the farm so far, and asking for confirmation that a parcel Hua Cheng had asked him to send had arrived.

And Hua Cheng realises that yes, he has been here for over two months, but that only means that he has now been here for longer than the time he has left.

He has just six fucking weeks left.

Their first activity for the day is making mushrooms, which is a task that Hua Cheng finds weirdly intriguing. He’s never thought much about the how when it comes to growing mushrooms, so when Xie Lian leads him to a pile of chopped-up logs and procures a drill and some wooden dowels wrapped in a plastic bag, he’s a little confused at first.

“Gege?” He asks, utterly baffled, and is rewarded with a laugh from Xie Lian.

“San Lang, don’t look so confused! It’s only mushrooms.”

That may be the case, but Hua Cheng still has no idea what logs and wooden dowels have to do with mushrooms. He would never, ever, have considered himself to have lived a sheltered life, but damn if he clearly doesn’t have a clue where half his food comes from.

Thankfully, Xie Lian is patient and quite obviously amused by Hua Cheng’s ignorance, and ever since Hua Cheng arrived he has always been happy to teach him.

“Look, here, hold the log?” Hua Cheng does as he is told, and Xie Lian drills several holes into the length of the wood. Once he’s done that, he grabs several of the wooden dowels from one of the plastic bags and inserts them into the wood, describing the process as he goes. Hua Cheng watches carefully as Xie Lian then covers the hole with warm wax using a little brush, his lower lip pulled between his teeth as he concentrates. 

Once he’s finished, he turns the log and grins at Hua Cheng. “See? You can do the next one. We only have one drill, after all.”

“But gege, what are the wooden plugs?” Hua Cheng asks, holding up one of the bags of dowels. 

“They have the mushroom spores on them. The mushrooms grow from them, but we need to take the logs to where the others are.”

There are others? Hua Cheng remains constantly surprised by how big this farm actually is. Most of it seems to function without Xie Lian’s intervention, needing him for harvesting and planting and little else. He’s lucky, he supposes, that Xie Lian isn’t running a huge farm requiring lots of machinery and exhausting work - if anything, Puqi Farm is simply his home and the land that he lives off, and anything else is a bonus he shares with the village for a very low profit.

“How long does it take?” Hua Cheng leans down to look at the log, uncertain if he really believes Xie Lian when it comes to the mushrooms. It seems too simple, too easy. 

“Depends.” Xie Lian puts the log on the floor and grabs another from the pile, putting it in front of Hua Cheng and handing him the drill. “These ones won’t fruit until next year unless we’re really lucky. I don’t really need any more oyster mushrooms, but when I was putting together the itinerary for the farming programme I thought it looked good.”

He looks a little sheepish at that admission, but Hua Cheng only grins. It’s a cute image to try and imagine, Xie Lian sitting at his kitchen table and trying to plot out as many farming activities as he can, regardless of if they’re going to be of any use to him this year.

To his credit, Hua Cheng really has felt like he’s learned a lot, and it’s been nice to do this kind of work, out in the countryside learning about where his food really comes from and the effort that goes into growing it. He hasn’t even harvested anything that they’ve planted together yet, though the tomatoes in the baskets that they hung from one of the terraces are beginning to look nice and big.

Will he see the harvest? If he sticks to his original schedule, then likely not. The thought makes his stomach ache, like a gnawing hole that has opened in the centre of it, already despondent at the thought of having to go back when summer ends. He has grown to love this place, the slower pace and the beautiful surroundings. There’s something about the routine, the simplicity, the knowledge that every day will be different but not unexpected, that Sundays are reserved for the village and sitting in Chen Hui’s kitchen with the smells of her cooking.

(And Hua Cheng has lived off bad food for nearly his whole life. He genuinely loves Xie Lian’s food and the explosion of flavours, and he can handle Xie Wan’s cooking very well, but no one cooks warming and delicious food like a grandmother.)

He doesn’t want to leave.

The thought hits him like a bus, wrenching the air from his chest.

He doesn’t want to leave.

He loves it here. He knows, without a doubt, that he’s in love with Xie Lian, as crazy as Xie Lian would probably think he is for that. He loves Ruoye, he loves the stupid chicken that demands a hug from him every morning else she’ll peck at his legs, he loves waking up early and being greeted with Xie Lian’s pleased grin, dozing on the couch late at night with Xie Lian curled up in his arms. Fuck, he even thinks highly of Xie Lian’s mother and grandmother, not because of anything they’ve done, but because Xie Lian loves them, and they’re the first people he’s met in years who have been kind to him simply because they are good people.

They take it in turns to create the mushroom logs, Hua Cheng’s thoughts consuming him as they switch places every few minutes, hammering dowels into the logs and talking quietly. He’s not sure if it’s obvious that he’s deep in thought, but after half an hour Xie Lian stops him with a hand on his arm.

“Come on, we should take a rest.” Xie Lian says, pulling him out of his thoughts and gently removing the drill from his hands. 

Hua Cheng is a little glad, truth be told. The drill isn’t heavy, and it hasn’t been hard to drill into the logs, but the constant vibration up his arms is beginning to make them start to ache. He’s no stranger to using drills when he’s working on a sculpture, but Xie Lian’s equipment is older and more powerful than the ones he uses for work. He is also in desperate need of distraction, something which Xie Lian excels at with his very presence.

Xie Lian places the drill on the ground and moves to sit on the log bench that sits alongside the wall of the farmhouse. He stretches once he’s sat down, and it’s almost impossible for Hua Cheng to tear his eyes away from him, the way he arches his back and how the muscles in his arms become very well defined with the tension.

Hua Cheng ducks into the space next to him, their arms brushing, his entire body crowding in close on the log. Their legs are pressed against each other from hip to ankle, and Hua Cheng bends a little so that his head is fully beneath Xie Lian’s hat.

“I’m just hiding from the sun.” Hua Cheng says with a grin, his eyes lifting to the edge of Xie Lian’s hat. It bumps against his hair and catches when Xie Lian shakes his head.

“You just want another kiss.”

“Well, now that gege’s mentioned it…” Hua Cheng gives a pitiful glance to the side, as though it’s a personal affront that Xie Lian has gone so long without kissing him. To his delight, Xie Lian only laughs softly, closing the distance between them and kissing him soundly.

His hand rests on Hua Cheng’s leg, warm and firm as Hua Cheng lifts his hand to gently cup Xie Lian’s jaw. His fingers curl behind Xie Lian’s ear, and he can feel the shiver that the touch brings.

Interesting.

Smiling into the kiss, Hua Cheng lets his fingertip trace the shell of Xie Lian’s ear, enjoying the way Xie Lian tenses, the way he leans even closer as his fingers tighten their grip on his thigh. His fingers trail down Xie Lian’s neck, pausing in the divot at his collarbone before he gently runs his palm down the front of his chest. His palm skims the tented fabric above his cock, teasing, before his hand comes to a rest on Xie Lian’s hip. He gives a possessive squeeze, and is rewarded with a moan into his mouth before Xie Lian pulls away.

Their noses brush, as Xie Lian looks up at him with half-lidded eyes, arousal and want clear in his gaze. His cheeks are flushed, his breathing a little unsteady.

“How are you so addicting?” He murmurs against Hua Cheng’s mouth, so close that their lips brush. Hua Cheng can feel his cheeks warming up at the compliment, so off-hand and full of desperation that the only thing he can do is lean down and kiss Xie Lian again.

Fuck. How on earth is he supposed to leave?

Hua Cheng stays up late that night, his mind so full of ideas for sketches that he cannot possibly go to sleep until he’s put some of them to paper. The house is silent, save for the sounds of birds and other nocturnal animals outside that he can hear through the open window in his bedroom. 

His sketch tonight is a rather elaborate one, which he definitely has plans to work on further on his tablet. He’s drawn Xie Lian in the orchard, surrounded by the numerous pear and apple trees that he had shown to Hua Cheng the day he led the way to it. Hua Cheng has rarely seen him with his hair down, but he’s seen it more often the last week or so, when their evening kisses have grown heated and he’s pulled the hair tie out just so that he can enjoy the way it falls around them like a curtain, blocking out the rest of the world. Xie Lian also looks softer with it down, and he wants to capture it, so he draws Xie Lian in the middle of the orchard with his hair lifted in the breeze, a carefree smile on his beautiful face.

He’s so engrossed in the sketch, fixated on making sure everything is right, that he almost misses the distinctive click of Xie Lian’s bedroom door opening.

Confused, Hua Cheng rubs at his eyes as his attention is dragged from his sketchbook, wondering if he’d managed to become so absorbed that he’d worked through to morning, but a quick glance at his phone shows him it’s only midnight. What on earth is Xie Lian doing up at this time, when he’s usually asleep by ten?

Hua Cheng continues drawing, listening over the sound of his pencil scratching to see what Xie Lian is doing. He hears his footsteps come closer, and for one breathtaking heartbeat Hua Cheng thinks he might actually be coming here, into his bedroom, to share Hua Cheng’s bed for the night. His heartbeat thunders in his ears with rising anticipation, but is quickly shot down when he hears the bathroom door open.

Oh well. 

Returning to his sketch, Hua Cheng focuses on the fine details of the strands of Xie Lian’s hair, only to be distracted once again when he hears the sudden, loud sound of the shower turning on, the water hitting the plastic tray so loudly that it’s truly baffling if Xie Lian expected him to sleep through it.

Unless he didn’t? Hua Cheng pushes the thought away, already feeling his dick hardening in his pants. Not that he wouldn’t love to, but he can’t exactly just get up and walk into the bathroom just because his horny brain would like him to believe that Xie Lian is showering so late in the hopes that Hua Cheng will come and ravish him in the shower. Especially not when neither of them have yet to do anything more than grind against each other, and even then, not to completion.

So no, he won’t be getting up and joining Xie Lian for his strange midnight shower, but that doesn’t mean he’s a perfect man. He abandons his current sketch, skipping ahead to the last few pages of the sketchbook where his more… inappropriate sketches are. 

He’d never let Xie Lian see these pages, filled as they are with what he’d probably consider filth. There’s nothing too explicit in there, but Hua Cheng hasn’t exactly held back on his fantasies with these sketches. The boldest is a full page spread that he’d worked on only days before, and though he hasn’t drawn any dicks in detail, there’s no mistaking what he and Xie Lian are doing on the page.

He picks up his pencil, his cock already heavy between his legs, and begins another sketch, this one of Xie Lian, naked, his hair wet and plastered to his chest and back. Hua Cheng is meticulous, adding detail to every droplet on Xie Lian’s skin, taking care with the muscles of his arm, the dark wiry hair above his-

“O-oh.”

Hua Cheng’s pencil drags a harsh thick line through the sketch as he abruptly looks up, his heart racing, wondering if in the depths of his mind he’d imagined the low, muffled moan from the other side of the wall.

He holds his breath, leaning forward over the desk to listen carefully. There’s nothing but the sound of the shower, and Hua Cheng strains his ears to try and hear anything else. For a moment he wonders if he did imagine it, but just when he is about to return to his sketch, he hears it again.

It’s unmistakably a moan, poorly muffled but drawn out in exactly the way he’d have imagined someone trying to quietly jerk off in the shower would sound. Hua Cheng’s whole body twitches at the sound, fighting the urge to get up from the chair and storm into the bathroom to help Xie Lian himself. 

He’s clearly trying to be quiet, and most likely thinks that the water drowns out the noise, but sounds are always much louder outside the cubicle than they seem to be within. Xie Lian probably doesn’t even think he’s being loud.

But he is. Hua Cheng nearly falls out of his chair when he hears another hitched moan and a thump, which sends filthy images to his brain of Xie Lian leaning against the tiles, head thrown back against the tiles and his eyes half lidded, his mouth open in pure bliss.

He can’t help it - Hua Cheng’s hand skims over his belly for a moment, debating on how wrong this is, before he pulls down the waistband of his trousers and takes his aching, desperate cock in hand.

He doesn’t bother holding back his moan as much - Xie Lian certainly cannot hear him given the noise of the shower, and the relief just from his own hand wrapping around his length is more than he could hope to hold back anyway. His hips buck up into the touch, the friction on his cock glorious, and Hua Cheng decides that, fuck it, he’s only human.

The first glide of his hand up his cock brings so much relief and pleasure that he lets his head fall back against the chair, closing his eyes to better imagine how Xie Lian looks in the shower right now. Maybe his cheeks are flushed, his eyes glassy with want, and his skin damp from the steam of the water?

He picks up the pace, his movements frantic as his hips stutter up, trying to maintain the rhythm. He can feel his orgasm building already, brewing at the base of his spine and beginning to spark along his skin. His free hand roams over his chest, his thumb roughly brushing over his nipples, the buds hard and peaked beneath his fingers.

He imagines Xie Lian in the shower doing the same, bucking his hips into the friction of his hand and so close to coming that his movements are uncoordinated and messy. It’s a divine image to have in his head.

What is Xie Lian thinking, he wonders? Is he imagining Hua Cheng in there with him, wrapped around him, his arm lowered to take Xie Lian in hand and jerk him off whilst he whispers soft words and outrageous things into his ear? His orgasm is close now, and Hua Cheng picks up his pace, his hand moving in slow firm strokes.

And then, on the other side of the wall, he hears a desperate “oh, San Lang.”

It’s quiet, barely there, but it’s enough for Hua Cheng to hear it. It takes a moment to register, as Hua Cheng slowly pumps his cock, but once it does…

Hua Cheng comes hard, all over his chest and stomach. His orgasm slams into him, turning his vision white with pleasure as he moans, brokenly, into his fist. His pace slows, coaxing the last few jolts of pleasure before he becomes overly sensitive, trying to pretend that the heat of his fist is Xie Lian, that he’s slowly fucking him through the come-down. 

Panting so hard that his chest heaves, Hua Cheng looks down at the mess he has made of himself with wide eyes, already feeling guilty for taking advantage of Xie Lian in such a way. But really, what was he supposed to do? How on earth did Xie Lian not think that he’d be heard if Hua Cheng was awake? 

There’s a thud against the wall, followed by a muffled moan, faint but so drawn out that there’s no way Hua Cheng isn’t listening to Xie Lian coming in the shower. His cock twitches in his hand, half-hard but interested. Hua Cheng feels breathless, knowing that he’s right, that Xie Lian has just been jerking himself off in the shower only hours after a heated makeout session on his couch.

Oh, he’s going to have fun with this in the morning, if he can only get past his own guilt to admit he’d heard the whole thing. 

He only has one little problem - he’s going to need to wait until Xie Lian has left the bathroom before he can clean himself up.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Hua Cheng expects there to be some kind of atmosphere, perhaps skittishness on Xie Lian’s behalf, or maybe some embarrassment, but Xie Lian greets him with an easygoing smile and a sweet kiss with his morning cup of coffee. He doesn’t know if his expectation of an atmosphere indirectly creates one, because as the morning goes on Xie Lian does seem to realise that he is being watched more by Hua Cheng.

He is incapable of keeping quiet, however, and when he yawns during their egg collection for the fifth time that morning, Xie Lian cocks his head at him and frowns.

“Did San Lang not get enough sleep last night?” He asks, sounding awfully concerned for someone who kept Hua Cheng awake jerking off in the shower in the early hours of the morning.

“I was kept awake when I heard the shower, and I couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards.” Hua Cheng says airily, his eyes flicking over to look at Xie Lian. The man pales, his mouth falling open before he closes it, briefly at a loss for words.

And then, he stammers out, “did San Lang hear me?”

It could easily be mistaken for mortification, if not for the way he looks at Hua Cheng. He’s embarrassed, but there’s also something about him that looks a little thrilled too, and it surprises Hua Cheng.

“Did I - did gege want me to hear him? Were you trying to seduce me?”

“I wasn’t trying to seduce you! I didn’t think I could be heard.”

“But what if your San Lang had thought it was an invitation, hm?” Hua Cheng asks with a shit-eating grin, leaning in closer and delighting in how flustered Xie Lian seems to become. 

Xie Lian stammers, his cheeks turning pink. “Would you have…ah, what would you have done, if you thought it was?”

Hua Cheng feels as though someone has reached into his chest and squeezed. “Gege did it on purpose! ”

“No! No, I promise, I just… I didn’t do it on purpose, but if you had come in…” Xie Lian looks away then, unable to keep looking at Hua Cheng as he mumbles something incoherent into the hen that he is holding.

“Sorry gege, I can’t hear you.” Hua Cheng internally feels rooted to the spot even as he teases, his mind turning over the countless possibilities, in awe that Xie Lian seems to be confirming that he too wants to take this thing between them further, even though he is incapable of saying it.

“You would have been welcome. If you had come in.” Xie Lian says stiffly, his eyes widening as he groans in embarrassment. “That sounded so bad.”

Hua Cheng relaxes, moving even closer and taking the hen from Xie Lian’s hands. He carefully lowers her to the floor before pulling Xie Lian closer, delighting in the blush on his cheeks as he wraps his arms low around his waist. 

“Can I still take up the invitation even if I’m a little late?” He asks, pressing closer, leaning down to speak into Xie Lian’s ear. He nuzzles the shell of it with his nose, feeling the way Xie Lian shivers in his arms, the way his hand begins to curl into the fabric of Hua Cheng’s shirt.

“We have too much to do today.” Xie Lian finally says with a laugh, his cheeks still pink, but looking up at Hua Cheng with a grin on his face that hides the earlier embarrassment. 

Hua Cheng heaves a dramatic sigh.

“What if I want to do it now?”

“San Lang will have to wait until I shower again then, won’t he? We need to go into the village today, anyway.” Xie Lian gently takes his hands and removes them from his hips, leaning up to quickly kiss his cheek. Hua Cheng turns to catch his lips, grinning when he is successful and laughing when Xie Lian lightly smacks his chest in reprimand.

“I’m sorry, gege, I couldn’t resist.”

Xie Lian only rolls his eyes fondly, grabbing their baskets of eggs and leading him out of the barn with Ruoye on their heels. 

Hua Cheng spends the rest of the morning feeling as though they’re tiptoeing on the edge, hyperaware of each other, their minds distracted by pleasant, stomach-swooping thoughts of what might happen when they’re finally alone in the farmhouse. 

He wanders around the village thinking of all the ways he can make things romantic when they return, stubbornly refusing to think about the mailed package hidden beneath his bed. Maybe he can cook dinner for once, and give Xie Lian a full night off rather than split the cooking.

He’s excited, he realises as they walk around the village, trying not to be obvious, trying not to look as sickeningly in love as he feels, knowing that this impossible, beautiful man seemingly wants Hua Cheng just as much as he wants Xie Lian.

It’s silly, because they’ve been intimate for nearly two months now, but he just wants to go back and pull him into a hug, kick his feet in a giddy way and wrap himself up in Xie Lian’s arms.

And then, when they’re ready to return home, the storm hits.

“Did you leave the barn doors open?” Hua Cheng shouts over the wind, huddling by the door to the truck as Xie Lian struggles to unlock the doors in the rain. It lashes down over them, soaking quickly through their clothes and bouncing audibly off the metal sides of the truck. 

“I left the smaller door on the side open!” Xie Lian shouts back, his words almost inaudible as he swears, the key refusing to fit in the lock on the driver’s side properly. 

Hua Cheng tugs at the door handle, trying his hardest not to laugh at the situation, and feeling relief when the handle gives way and the door swings open. They bundle into the truck, slamming their doors behind them, both of them collapsing into their seats with a laugh.

“Oh, I hope Ruoye went inside with them.” Xie Lian says as he shivers, shoving his key into the ignition and turning up the heating once the engine starts. 

Hua Cheng really tries not to laugh at the mental image that summons, of poor Ruoye soaking wet and waiting sadly by the farmhouse door for their return. “Does she usually go in?”

“No, I think she likes the chance to cool off. She takes hours to dry though.” Xie Lian puts the truck into gear once the steam on the windows has cleared, though the rain is coming down so hard that his wipers are on the highest setting, and yet it’s still not enough. 

The drive back to the farmhouse is slow, the sky an angry grey for so early in the afternoon. The rain is terrifying: they’ve had rainy days all through summer, but nothing on the scale of this. When they pull up at the top of the farm, Hua Cheng takes a dubious look at the rain flowing down the path and over the terraces in sheets and glances over at Xie Lian.

He looks as doubtful as Hua Cheng does.

“I don’t think walking down to the farm is a good idea.” Hua Cheng offers, and is given a groan in response as Xie Lian folds his arms on the steering wheel and buries his face in them.

“We’re going to be stuck here for hours.”

“Maybe we could make a run for it?” Hua Cheng asks, only to flinch when the sound of the rain on the metal roof increases in intensity. “Or not."

There’s not much room in the truck cab, but it’s so old that the seat is one bench rather than two individual front seats. Hua Cheng debates the cons of being forced into the small space for several hours with his knees jammed against the dashboard and internally balks.

“Might as well get comfortable then, gege.” He says, hoping Xie Lian doesn’t get annoyed at him for what he’s about to do. 

Hua Cheng unclips his seatbelt, bringing his legs up onto the space between them and shifting so his back is up against the passenger door. Xie Lian watches him curiously, and finally understands when Hua Cheng opens his arms to him with a small smile.

Xie Lian grins, unclipping his own seat belt and shimmying across the seat until he’s laying in Hua Cheng’s arms, nestled between his legs with his head on his chest.

“This is nice.” He says as he winds his arms around Hua Cheng’s waist, the sound of the rain heavy on the roof and the windows. The space is tight, but it’s cosy. Hua Cheng may be missing out on his wished-for cuddles in the farmhouse, but this is just as nice, even if Xie Lian’s bun is tickling his chin and jaw.

“Do these storms last for long?” 

Xie Lian shakes his head, his chin digging into Hua Cheng’s chest.

“It will probably blow over in an hour. And then it will be bright sunshine for the rest of the day.”

“But gege said we’d be stuck here for hours.” 

Xie Lian lifts his head and looks up at Hua Cheng, his arms loosening around his waist. “Do you want to walk through the mud back to the farmhouse?” He asks, one eyebrow raised.

Well, when he says it like that, no, but there’s something hilarious about the mental image of them slipping and sliding through the mud to get back to the farmhouse that nearly makes Hua Cheng start giggling like a madman. 

As it is, he holds it in, and nods sagely instead. “You’re so wise, gege.”

Xie Lian actually snorts out a laugh, and it’s so cute that he wants to lean down and kiss his nose. The angle is too awkward, though, so he settles for a sad little look that has Xie Lian leaning closer.

“What’s this expression for?” Xie Lian pokes between his eyebrows as he asks, inching up his chest so that their faces are closer.

“Nothing.” Hua Cheng sighs, smirking when Xie Lian gives him a disbelieving look. “It’s just, we’ve been cuddling for five minutes now, and gege still hasn’t kissed me. After he tormented me so last night-“

Xie Lian shuts him up with a kiss, his lips already tilted into a smile as his lips press against Hua Cheng’s. It’s gentle, the barest brush of tongue before he pulls away, one hand lifting to stroke along Hua Cheng’s jaw before he curls his fingers around the back of Hua Cheng’s neck.

“You’re shameless.” Xie Lian says, though it’s entirely fond. The way he looks down at Hua Cheng, a smile on his face and emotion behind his eyes, feels weightier than any looks they’ve shared before. Xie Lian looks as though he is on the cusp of confessing something, and it makes Hua Cheng’s heart pound in his chest.

Whatever he’s thinking, after a moment of looking as though he is quite clearly trying to find the right words, Xie Lian abandons it, instead leaning back down to kiss Hua Cheng again.

And oh, is this one a kiss. Hua Cheng has always taken the lead in their kisses, but Xie Lian kisses him hard, using his own body as leverage to lean down and kiss Hua Cheng almost senseless. His tongue pushes against Hua Cheng’s own, a loud, wet kiss that is enough to send Hua Cheng’s mind spinning as Xie Lian shifts, sitting up for better leverage.

And then, mid-kiss, Xie Lian moves properly, steadying himself with a hand on the dashboard and changing his position until he’s straddling Hua Cheng. It lines their groins up, and when Xie Lian settles back down with his full weight, it’s absolute fucking bliss.

Hua Cheng instinctively rolls his hips up as Xie Lian lets his hands rest on Hua Cheng’s jaw, the movement creating causing the first bursts of pleasure to begin sparking up his spine. Xie Lian grinds his hips down when Hua Cheng moves again, and the moan that Xie Lian releases against his mouth is obscene.

Desperate to hear it again, his mind suddenly overwhelmingly fuzzy with want, Hua Cheng lets his hands rest on Xie Lian’s hips. He struggles to focus with Xie Lian like this, kissing him hungrily, as though his patience has snapped and now he is determined to drink his fill.

The hardness between them becomes too desperate to deny, their erections pressed flush against each other, pleasure sparking through them with every movement of Xie Lian as he grinds down in Hua Cheng’s lap. Hua Cheng’s hands slide around his hips and over his ass, squeezing possessively in a way that makes Xie Lian’s head spin.

Xie Lian’s fingers fumble at the edge of Hua Cheng’s t-shirt, clumsily tugging it up his chest until Hua Cheng has no choice but to stop their kiss so it can be pulled over his head. He tosses it over Xie Lian’s shoulder as the other man falls back into him, but barely even sees it land on the steering wheel before Xie Lian claims his mouth again, his hands hot as they start to explore his chest. 

“Gege.” Hua Cheng murmurs, gasping when Xie Lian’s thumb brushes against his nipple, sending heat straight down to his cock. “Not fair.” 

He slips his hands under Xie Lian’s shirt, feeling the heat of his skin beneath his palms, and gives the fabric a pull to make his point. Xie Lian’s mouth quirks into a smile against his lips, before he leans back and pulls off the shirt in one smooth movement.

Hua Cheng’s brain feels like it stutters to a halt. 

It’s not the first time he’s seen Xie Lian topless. It’s not even the first time they’ve kissed and his shirt has come off. But there’s something about this, Xie Lian sitting over him, erections painfully pushed together, bracketing him in against the car door with his strong arms and broad shoulders, that makes Hua Cheng’s brain short circuit. He lets his hands roam up over Xie Lian’s biceps, curving around his shoulders, and marvels at his confidence, knowing that the Xie Lian who first kissed him weeks ago would not have tugged his shirt off so easily.

Hua Cheng tenses as Xie Lian’s hands stop at the button of his trousers, their breaths coming slow and heavy. Xie Lian pulls away from Hua Cheng, just enough to look down at him, eyes wide.

“Can I?” He whispers, his tongue darting out to wet his lower lip before he tugs it between his teeth, his eyes a little glazed over with anticipation and eagerness.

“Yes.” Hua Cheng all but pleads, his voice hoarse, his hips already trying to roll up to chase that delicious friction between them. Xie Lian wastes no time, tugging open the button and zip on his pants and reaching in, hesitantly at first, but far more confidently once he locates the waistband of Hua Cheng’s boxers. He tugs them towards him, his hand warm when he finally wraps his fingers around Hua Cheng’s cock and pulls it free.

Hua Cheng has never tried so hard to hold back an orgasm in his life.

Even though Xie Lian seems uncertain what he’s doing, just the feel of his hand wrapped around Hua Cheng is dizzying, his touch gentle but firm, unmoving, his pressure increasing as he tests the feel of it, the weight of it in his hand. Hua Cheng’s hips buck up involuntarily, which only jostles Xie Lian and makes his grip on Hua Cheng shift.

Xie Lian looks transfixed, staring down at Hua Cheng’s cock, the glossy smear of precum across the head.

“Gege.” Hua Cheng whines, his hands fumbling for the ties on Xie Lian’s pants. “Gege is being so unfair.” He manages to loosen the pants, and manages to push both them and Xie Lian’s boxers down over his hips, far more easily than if Xie Lian had tried to do the same to him. It leaves Xie Lian straddling him with his ass and cock gloriously bared to him.

Hua Cheng cherishes that first glide of his hand over Xie Lian’s naked hip, around the smooth skin of his upper thighs and around to his ass. He gives his cheeks a firm, generous squeeze, tilting his head back to catch Xie Lian’s lips in a kiss. It is soft, unhurried, both of them adjusting to this new step in their relationship. 

The air is charged, their breathing coming in heavier and harsher, open mouthed kisses with the barest tease of tongue slowly becoming more passionate, as Xie Lian lets go of his cock to steady himself better against Hua Cheng. It is Xie Lian who deepens their kiss this time, leaning in as close as he can possibly get, and it’s electric to feel their cocks brushing together in their laps, hot and hard and driving Hua Cheng’s mind into ruin.

Xie Lian pants when he pulls back, his cheeks flushed and his lips swollen and pink.

“San Lang,” he whispers, his voice strained, “I need…”

“Gege can take the lead, if he wants. I’m just here to be used by him.” Hua Cheng says with an attempted air of sauciness that hides the pounding of his heart in his chest. It only phases Xie Lian a little, as the other man inhales deeply and nods, his eyes wide and slightly glazed over.

“Okay. Okay.” He shifts on Hua Cheng’s lap and sits back, looking down at their cocks as he tugs his lower lip between his teeth. It leaves his cock bobbing sadly above Hua Cheng’s, so he squeezes Xie Lian’s ass once more and rolls his hips up.

Their cocks press together, silky skin pressed against silky skin, sending so much pleasure through their blood that they moan together, heat coiling in their bellies. Xie Lian rolls his hips again on instinct, a glint in his eye as he watches Hua Cheng pant beneath him and try to rut up into him, chasing that feeling once more.

Hua Cheng feels like he’s going to explode if Xie Lian doesn’t touch him, and it must show on his face, for Xie Lian stops him with a hand on his chest.

“I want to try…” He trails off, his cheeks turning a violent pink as he shifts closer on Hua Cheng’s laps until their cocks are pressed nearly base to base. They both moan, long and low when he lines their cocks up, pressed together from base to tip, and wraps his hand around them both.

“Gege.” Hua Cheng pants, already rocking up into the touch. He feels as though his blood is on fire, the pleasure coming from every bit of warm skin of Xie Lian’s cock against his own. Xie Lian tips forward as Hua Cheng adds his hand to Xie Lian’s, heat encompassing both of their cocks. The pace that Xie Lian sets is slow at first, quickly becoming fast and hurried as he tips forward to kiss Hua Cheng.

Their kisses are a messy smear of lips against lips, as Xie Lian unconsciously rolls his hips down with every smooth glide of their hands. The feeling is unlike anything he could have imagined, the silky skin of Xie Lian’s cock against his own, hot and hard and sending pure heat through his body from every place where they touch. The calluses on Xie Lian’s hand adds an extra sensation to Hua Cheng’s cock, makes it so he is well aware it is Xie Lian’s hand, not his own.

Xie Lian’s eyes are half-lidded, pleasure clear on his features. Hua Cheng is utterly enamoured, pulled in two between his own pleasure and watching Xie Lian’s, listening to their heavy panting as the pace becomes frenzied. His orgasm builds deep from inside him, heat unspooling in his belly before he comes without warning, an obscene moan escaping his throat as hot ropes of cum spill over their fingers and up Xie Lian’s stomach. 

Xie Lian moans at the sight, his eyes slipping shut as he kisses Hua Cheng hard, a rough press of their lips and tongue before he comes almost as suddenly as Hua Cheng. Cum spurts over their hands, pooling on Hua Cheng’s stomach with his own spend, and Xie Lian keeps kissing him, his breathing becoming ragged as he comes down from his high. 

It takes a minute before his breathing evens out, his body slumping a little against Hua Cheng’s, warm and heavy as he kisses along Hua Cheng’s jaw. Hua Cheng kisses his temple, tastes the salt of his sweat at his hairline and then registers the slightly unpleasant feeling of the cum on their stomachs mixing as Xie Lian removes his hand from between them.

Holding back a smile, Hua Cheng reaches over the dashboard to take Xie Lian’s shirt, using it to reach between them and wipe up as much of the mess as he can. Xie Lian’s chest and neck is pink with a pretty flush, one that only deepens when Hua Cheng uses his tongue to clean up the cum from his fingers before he gently wipes at Xie Lian’s belly.

He dries his hand with a corner of the shirt before flinging it into the footwell, before tilting Xie Lian’s head up with his fingers curled under his chin and pressing a sweet, slow kiss to his lips. They stay there, content for the moment, arms wound around each other as the sound of the rain continues to beat down on the truck.

There’s just enough room on the bench for Xie Lian to eventually stretch out and still lay comfortably between Hua Cheng’s legs, propping himself up with his arms on Hua Cheng’s chest. It means that it’s far easier for them to lie there trading lazy kisses, talking in quiet, hushed tones with the backdrop of the storm. The windows have steamed up from the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the truck, but that’s hardly important, because neither of them are looking anywhere but at each other.

Xie Lian smiles down at him, his fingertips trailing gently over Hua Cheng’s face, over the bridge of his nose and down over his lips, his thumb dragging down his lower lip before he replaces it with his lips in a quick kiss.

When he pulls away, he continues tracing his fingertips along Hua Cheng’s jaw, both of them caught staring at each other, unable to look away. The moment feels weighty, a delicate tension hanging in the air between them, one that only lifts slightly with every kiss that Xie Lian bestows upon his lips.

And then, Xie Lian’s fingers trail over the bridge of his nose, his pinky finger delicately tapping along the socket of his right eye, and Hua Cheng inhales deeply.

Xie Lian pauses, his brows furrowed in concern.

“You’ve never asked about it.” Hua Cheng explains, his voice quiet. He doesn’t look away from Xie Lian’s face, even as the other man smiles softly and brushes some strands of Hua Cheng’s hair away from his face.

“San Lang will talk to me about it when he wants to. And he doesn’t have to at all, if that’s what he prefers.” Xie Lian plants a loud, smacking kiss between Hua Cheng’s eyebrows to break the coil of fear that is beginning to churn in his stomach. It’s remarkably effective, and Hua Cheng feels the tension in his shoulders lessen. 

“You can ask, if you want.”

“Hm.” Xie Lian leans a little closer, until their noses are smushed together, and Hua Cheng barks out a laugh against his lips, his arms winding tight around Xie Lian’s waist. “Were you born with it?” 

“I think so. I - my mother always treated it as something unique, but I was too young to ask. After she died, I was never allowed to mention it.” His father refused to speak to him, after all, and his stepmother would sooner smack him for having the eye visible than answer any questions about it. His older step-siblings had only ever taunted him for it, and he’d learned to fashion his first pathetic eyepatch long before he’d started school.

Not that it had helped.

“I was always bullied for it, as a kid.” Hua Cheng admits, feeling his heart thud in his chest, the familiar old anxiety surfacing whenever his eye is discussed. He has been well known in Xianle as such a terror of an artist that it has been years since anyone has dared to mention it within earshot of him, and Xie Lian has refrained from asking about it, but old wounds are hard to shake, and his eye is the hardest of all. He hasn’t cared about it for a long time, but he could not bear to feel the sting of rejection from Xie Lian.

It’s a stupid fear, given that they have lived together now for over three months with his eye visible the whole time, and Xie Lian certainly hasn’t complained about it during their plentiful kissing sessions. Even now, there is no hint of disgust, and there hadn’t been that day in Xianle either, all those years ago.

Perched in his lap, Xie Lian frowns, softly running his fingertips around Hua Cheng’s eye socket. 

“I like it. I think it’s beautiful. I think you’re beautiful.” He leans forward, gently kissing around his eye until Hua Cheng closes it, and then plants a kiss to his closed lid. Only then does he cup Hua Cheng’s face in his hands, kissing him sweetly, deeply, as though they have all the time in the world. It makes something in Hua Cheng’s chest ache, an age-old anxiety shifting loose and baring itself to Xie Lian.

“Gege, I have to tell you something.” He’s encompassed by a sudden need, the urge to tell Xie Lian the truth about their first meeting. He needs to know, Xie Lian needs to know that they’ve met before and Hua Cheng needs to know that Xie Lian witnessing such an agonising moment of weakness will change nothing between them.

Xie Lian pulls away, sitting back on Hua Cheng’s lap, and there’s a touch of worry for Hua Cheng clearly visible in his face.

Fuck, how does he even start with such a thing?

“I have…admired you for a very long time. Since before you left Xianle.”

He feels the way Xie Lian stiffens, the flash of pain on his face as looks down at Hua Cheng. His eyes are wide, and Hua Cheng can see the fear plain on his face. 

Does he worry that Hua Cheng is about to confess an infatuation from his Xianle days? Hua Cheng would not confess love from those days, if only because he knows that Xie Lian is no longer the man that he was in Xianle. Even if he had thought himself infatuated with Xie Lian back then, it is nothing compared to the sheer passion that burns through him now, the utterly terrifying depth of his feelings for this man. Not for the idol who helped him, but for the man who greets his chickens by name every morning, who finds delight in the land he works and who makes sure to visit his mother and grandmother every week, who makes Hua Cheng feel like the only home he needs is in his arms.

“When I was a kid, some of the older kids from the high school cornered me in an alley. I was always small for my age, so when they ripped off my eyepatch and started kicking me, all I could do was try to fight back, but it wasn’t enough.” Xie Lian reaches out to cup his face again, the touch comforting as Hua Cheng continues. “I thought it would never end. And then a car pulled up at the end of the alley, and out came a boy with a red umbrella who chased my bullies away. I always admired gege for saving me, after that day. I wanted to become your equal, so I could meet you again.”

The expression on Xie Lian’s face changes as he speaks, from concern and worry to confusion, and Hua Cheng can see the moment he realises, the way his eyes widen and his mouth falls open. His lips move as if to speak, forming a word he’s clearly trying to pull from the depths of his memory, but nothing prepares Hua Cheng for when he recalls what it is he’s searching for.

“ Hong’er ?” 

Hua Cheng jerks up, steadying Xie Lian only with his hands at his waist. “Gege remembers me?”

“Of course I remember - you were so quiet in the car, I felt awful leaving you when we dropped you off at those scary apartments. I came back a few days later to check on you, but no one knew who you were.”

“I don’t think many of my neighbours knew I even existed. The ones who did probably only knew because they heard - well.” Hua Cheng trails off, a little dazed - Xie Lian remembered him, and had come back to check on him? 

Xie Lian’s brows furrow again, though the look on his face this time is sad, “I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

“It is what it is, gege.” Hua Cheng knows his smile is small, if only because of his nerves. “But…you don’t mind that I hid it from you?”

Xie Lian shakes his head, kissing Hua Cheng gently on his forehead. 

“No. I wish you’d been comfortable enough to tell me sooner, but your past is your own story to tell. I’m just glad you managed to escape it.” Xie Lian smiles, and it’s enough to brighten Hua Cheng’s smile, to wash away the anxiety that has been slowly brewing inside him. Xie Lian pokes his cheek, trying to make him laugh, to chase away his worries. “And look at you now! You were so little, before. Now you’re the tallest person I know.”

“All the better for gege to use me as a pillow.” Hua Cheng murmurs as Xie Lian does just that, shuffling down until he can lay atop Hua Cheng, his lower body settling between Hua Cheng’s thighs and his head resting on his chest. Xie Lian then winds his arms tight around Hua Cheng’s waist, and it does not escape him that it’s a tighter hold than normal, grounding Hua Cheng, but also making him well aware that even with his confession, Xie Lian has no wish to let him go.

There’s yet more to talk about, he knows, but discussions around his traumatic youth and Xie Lian’s abrupt, terrified flight from Xianle will only sour the mood, and it’s not something either of them feel up to talking about so soon after experiencing such intimacy together, such bliss. So Hua Cheng only kisses Xie Lian’s scalp, nosing at his hair affectionately before wrapping his arms around him, and allows himself to surrender to the sleepy lull that pulls him in.

They doze for little more than a couple of hours, but when Hua Cheng finally opens his eyes it’s to the sight of the sun shining through the windows, the world outside damp and shiny from the raindrops still coating the ground. Xie Lian is warm, his weight heavy and comforting atop Hua Cheng, the cold tip of his nose nestled in the hollow of Hua Cheng’s throat. 

“Gege, wake up.” Hua Cheng is loathe to wake him, since he looks so peaceful, but they really should get up and check on the animals. Xie Lian sleepily groans, burrowing his face into Hua Cheng’s neck and shaking his head.

“Has the rain stopped?” He asks, his voice muffled against Hua Cheng’s skin. Hua Cheng hums in the affirmative, one hand trailing down Xie Lian’s bare back.

“It has. Which means nothing is stopping anyone from the village checking on us and seeing you.” Hua Cheng’s voice lilts with mischief as he pointedly lets his hand drift over Xie Lian’s bare ass, smacking it softly just to further punctuate his point.

The sound Xie Lian makes is an odd mix between a shriek and a yell, all traces of sleepiness gone as he sits up with his cheeks flaming. He hurriedly pulls up his clothes, throwing Hua Cheng an embarrassed look, as though it’s Hua Cheng’s fault that he chose to fall asleep with his pants and underwear still bunched up around his ankles.

Laughing, Hua Cheng grabs his own shirt from the steering wheel and hands it to him. “Here, you don’t want your shirt gege. It’s dirty.” 

Somehow, Xie Lian manages to blush even more, though it doesn’t stop his eyes from drifting down to Hua Cheng’s stomach, and widening when he sees that Hua Cheng is hard.

“I thought it was your phone against my hip.” He mumbles, pulling Hua Cheng’s shirt over his head quickly. He’s frowning, but Hua Cheng can tell it’s more petulant than annoyed, as though he’s irritated that he didn’t notice before he’d fixed his clothes.

Hua Cheng makes a point of slowly fixing his own clothes, taking his time to tuck his cock back into his pants and smirking at the way Xie Lian watches him out of the corner of his eye.

When they’re decent, though Hua Cheng is shirtless, they clamber out of the truck, ready to check over the farm. It smells fresh and cool as they make their way down to the barn, and the storm seems to have done the trick in chasing away the heavy, warm humidity that has hung over the farm the last few days.

To Xie Lian’s relief, only the first few metres inside the barn doors are wet, and all of the animals have retreated inside during the storm. It takes them several minutes to round up the chickens and put them into their coop, but the sheep are dry and snoozing in their pen. Ruoye refuses to leave the barn, where she’s warm and dry and lying amongst the sheep and the hay, so Xie Lian fills a spare metal bowl with water and leaves it in there with them, and locks them up tight for the night.

The walk back up to the farmhouse is slow, Xie Lian’s fingers entwined with Hua Cheng’s as they avoid puddles, grinning at the absurdity of it as they take a strange route up through the terraces. They stop each other frequently to steal kisses, and Xie Lian’s blush from the truck is gone completely. It calms the irrational worry in the back of Hua Cheng’s mind that Xie Lian could have been regretful of what had happened, and makes contentment settle over them like a warm blanket.

Xie Lian laughs as they enter the courtyard, his fingers still twined through Hua Cheng’s. The blush from earlier returns high on his cheeks, his eyes wide and his pupils blown with arousal, and he looks so happy that Hua Cheng can’t resist backing him up against one of the posts. He cups Xie Lian’s face gently in his hands and leans down, catching his mouth in a soft, lingering kiss.

There’s a soft whimper as Xie Lian presses up into him, his hands releasing their hold on Hua Cheng’s arms to wind around his neck. There’s none of the earlier frenzy in the truck, only slow, deep kisses, Hua Cheng drunk on the smooth slide of Xie Lian’s tongue against his.

Xie Lian moans softly against his lips, and when he pulls away to look up at Hua Cheng, there’s heat in his gaze that lights a spark in Hua Cheng’s chest. 

“Shall we go inside, San Lang?” He asks, his voice shaky, but not from anxiety. It’s the same nervousness from earlier, want laced with anticipation that makes Hua Cheng want to dip down and kiss him absolutely senseless. 

He only nods instead, eager, wanting Xie Lian to take the lead for now. Xie Lian does, taking his hand and leading him to the farmhouse. A weighty feeling settles between them, but there’s no fear, no nervousness outside of the natural worries that comes with such intimacy.

Once inside the farmhouse, Xie Lian gently tugs at his wrist, pulling him in the direction of his bedroom. Hua Cheng’s eyes widen in surprise, having not expected that at all. He’s been in Xie Lian’s room a few times, but they’ve never kissed in there. It has remained a space solely for Xie Lian, but now he pulls Hua Cheng towards the door, and closes it firmly behind them. 

It’s a bigger room than Hua Cheng’s, decorated with trinkets and odds and ends, with the large desk full of paperwork and Xie Lian’s laptop. He has bigger windows too, and the benefit of a large double bed in the middle of the room. Hua Cheng has never minded kissing and cuddling Xie Lian in his own room, enjoying the forced closeness of his single bed, but this one offers a lot more room for…certain activities.

Clearly nervous, Xie Lian sits on the edge of the bed, guiding Hua Cheng to sit down next to him. He does as he is bidden, and some of Xie Lian’s nervous energy seems to seep out once he does, as though just being in Hua Cheng’s presence is enough to put aside any anxieties he may have. 

“Why did gege bring me in here?” Hua Cheng asks, already knowing the answer, but still wanting to be sure. He doesn’t want to push Xie Lian, or pressure him in any way. He’s aware that being brought into his room, the only space Xie Lian had left for himself after opening his home to a stranger, is significant, and he would never forgive himself if he crossed any boundaries. 

Xie Lian takes his hand, his cheeks pinkening as he entwines his fingers with Hua Cheng’s. “I want… I want to try that, with you.”

Hua Cheng swallows thickly, feeling a rush of affection, of love surge through him. He wants to tease, but knows that this is not the moment for doing so, not the first time that Xie Lian confesses to it. He settles for gently cupping Xie Lian’s face in his hands, closing the gap between them to press a sweet kiss to his lips.

Arousal thrums beneath the surface, the flames stoked with every kiss and every touch. They shuck off their clothes slowly, but purposefully, undressing each other and taking the time to properly admire each other’s bodies without being confined in the cramped space of the truck. Xie Lian blushes when he pulls Hua Cheng’s boxers down his legs, exposing the already-hard length of his cock to his greedy eyes. They shift, pulling clothes off and kissing in between removed garments, kissing exposed skin as they go. 

Hua Cheng kisses a long trail down Xie Lian’s chest, stopping at the dark patch of pubic hair and teasingly kissing the head of his cock, grinning when it twitches beneath his tongue as he licks the precum from the tip. He kisses and licks his way down Xie Lian’s inner thighs, smirking at the way he writhes beneath him, sucking hickeys into his skin before crawling back up and collapsing into him, trading warm kisses and pressing naked skin to naked skin. 

It is warm, it is beautiful, wrapped up in each other, both of them hard but neither of them rushing, taking advantage of the large bed in Xie Lian’s room to explore each other fully and to simply enjoy the feeling of lying chest to chest, arms around each other and legs tangled atop the sheets. Xie Lian grins against his lips as Hua Cheng’s hands skim over his thighs, propped up above Hua Cheng and easily able to kiss him as much as he likes.

Hua Cheng reaches up for Xie Lian’s hair tie, tugging at it gently until it pulls loose, and Xie Lian’s hair falls down around his shoulders. He throws the hair tie to the side of the bed, letting his fingers run through the long inky strands, marvelling at their softness, the sheer length of it. It must reach the middle of Xie Lian’s back at the very least, and Hua Cheng delights in it as Xie Lian shifts above him, the hair falling around them like a curtain. 

“San Lang.” Xie Lian breathes against his lips, his body settling against Hua Cheng’s. It’s becoming impossible to ignore how hard they both are, Xie Lian’s cock hard and heavy against Hua Cheng’s stomach. Hua Cheng’s cock sits between Xie Lian’s asscheeks, so close and so warm, and Hua Cheng can only look up at him with his eyes half-lidded in lazy arousal. “Can we - I want to…”

Hua Cheng uses his grip in Xie Lian’s hair to tug him down for a kiss, wet and open mouthed, almost lewd in how noisy it is.

“It might be too painful for gege. We don’t have anything to make it easier for you.” He finally murmurs in response, licking the taste of Xie Lian off his lower lip.

Xie Lian smiles, closing the gap between them for another kiss. It’s messy, half-hearted as Xie Lian reaches across at the same time to fumble in the drawer next to his bed. Hua Cheng is curious, but allows himself to be distracted until Xie Lian is sitting back and pressing something cool and tubular into his hand.

Hua Cheng glances down, surprised. It’s a bottle of lube, opened, but almost full. He would place his bets on it being opened for the first time the night before, when Xie Lian had used the shower.

Grinning, he leans up to kiss Xie Lian, but before it can go much further he pauses, something pulling at the back of his mind.

“Wait, where did gege get-“

“Aha, that’s really not important.” Xie Lian hurriedly says, trying to kiss Hua Cheng in the hopes that it will hide the embarrassment in his voice. Hua Cheng laughs, pulling away and turning his head to look at the bottle, grinning even more when Xie Lian whines against his cheek.

“Gege, did you order this in? It has to have taken weeks.” 

Xie Lian groans, leaning down to hide his face against Hua Cheng’s neck. “It’s even worse than that.” 

Hua Cheng waits, trying to look down at him, but is only greeted with a mass of black hair. He smiles into it, waiting, waiting, and then…

“I had to buy it off Mrs. Luo.” Xie Lian’s voice is muffled, but the mortification is clear in his voice.

Hua Cheng can’t help it: he bursts out laughing, gripping at Xie Lian’s shoulders to try to lift him off his chest and see his face. Xie Lian goes limp in his arms, whining his name as Hua Cheng struggles to control his laughter.

“I didn’t think they sold lube at the village store.” Hua Cheng manages to admit through his laughter, which only makes Xie Lian groan again.

“You have to ask her for that…kind of stuff.”

“So gege bought this…last week?” Hua Cheng asks, his palm roughly skimming up Xie Lian’s side as he wracks his brain, trying to figure out when Xie Lian could have bought it.

“A few weeks ago.” Xie Lian answers quietly, his cheeks red. Hua Cheng’s eyes widen.

“Weeks? Gege is so forward, playing so chaste whilst all this time he was just waiting to steal my virginity.”

“San Lang! I just wanted to be prepared!” He pleads, shaking his head and burrowing in closer to Hua Cheng, who only laughs even louder than before.

“I’m so lucky, having such a thoughtful gege.” Hua Cheng manages to curl his fingers underneath Xie Lian’s chin, using it to make him tilt his head up to look at him. His cheeks are still a lovely shade of red, but his eyes are alight, anticipation clear in his almost petulant gaze.

Hua Cheng kisses him deeply, and all it takes to chase away the embarrassment is to run his hand down Xie Lian’s back, slow and teasing, his fingers dipping into the cleft of his ass before he squeezes. Xie Lian shivers in his arms, soft and pliant as Hua Cheng holds him, gently rolling over until Xie Lian’s back is to the pillows and Hua Cheng can settle atop him.

A leg is thrown over his hip, and Hua Cheng runs his hand up the outside of Xie Lian’s thigh, marvelling at how comfortable Xie Lian is even with this touch. He’s nervous, and perhaps finds it awkward to talk about this kind of thing, but it feels as though he is never uncomfortable with Hua Cheng, never anything but fully at ease with every touch and every kiss.

“San Lang. I really want to sleep with you.” Xie Lian says when they stop for a moment to gather their breath, gently cupping Hua Cheng’s face and meeting his gaze with such want in his eyes. Hua Cheng shifts his weight so that he’s not pressing down fully into Xie Lian, swallowing thickly and planting a firm kiss to his lips.

“Okay.” He’s aware he may sound a little dazed, a little stunned, but he nods and sits up, prompting Xie Lian to mirror his movements. “It might be more comfortable for gege if you were on your knees.”

And then, just to convince himself this really is happening, he sweetly kisses Xie Lian once more. Xie Lian sits up at the kiss, leaning forward and letting his arms lazily drape around Hua Cheng’s neck, and really, Hua Cheng wonders why they wasted so many weeks kissing with their clothes on when they could have been kissing like this. 

Far too soon, Xie Lian breaks their kiss and shuffles around until he’s in the centre of the bed, on his hands and knees with Hua Cheng behind him. He’s definitely blushing now, but there’s not much shame, only anticipation. Hua Cheng can see his rim tensing at the sound of the lube being opened, sees the way his body shivers when he feels Hua Cheng nudge his legs a little further apart so he can settle between them.

He steadies Xie Lian with a palm in the centre of his lower back, his lubed-up fingers ready to begin working him open. The sight of Xie Lian ass-up is hotter than it should be, but then Hua Cheng shouldn’t be surprised. All the long hours working outside has given the man a great ass, and from this angle the muscles of his back, shoulders, and thighs are really something to behold.

He can’t help but dip down and press a long, wet kiss to Xie Lian’s rim though, laughing when Xie Lian tries but fails to hold back a moan.

“San Lang! You can’t - it’s dirty -“

Hua Cheng didn’t think it was possible, but Xie Lian’s cheeks go even pinker. “Oh? Did gege not like it? I thought from your moan that perhaps you did.”

“San Lang.” He whines, embarrassed, and Hua Cheng finally takes pity on him, encircling his rim with his fingers to get it slicked up. Xie Lian tenses beneath his fingers, but already his ass begins to push back, and Hua Cheng lets out a low chuckle at the sight.

He starts slowly, gently stretching Xie Lian with only a single finger at first, curling it ever so slightly to try and find that spot, the one that will make his knees buckle and send heat coursing through his blood. 

It’s a beautiful sight, Xie Lian on all fours, rocking back into Hua Cheng as he slides in another finger, stretching him wider. His cheeks are flushed, his head hanging down as he pants, chasing the edge of something he knows he should be feeling soon, something that moves tantalisingly closer when Hua Cheng finally adds a third finger.

He’s a little rougher, curling his fingers deep and stroking, and knows immediately when he hits Xie Lian’s prostate. He tightens around all three of Hua Cheng’s fingers, his head tipping back and moaning.

“Does gege feel good?” Hua Cheng asks, increasing the pace of his fingers, the sound wet and lewd in the quiet of the bedroom. Xie Lian’s hips move in tandem with his hand, his ass rocking back as he fucks himself on Hua Cheng’s fingers.

“Yes.” He moans, beginning to pant. “So good, San Lang, I- ohh-“ His words trail off into a moan as Hua Cheng curls his fingers again, stretching Xie Lian as well as he can, cataloguing every movement that results in a moan, a tightening of his walls around his fingers.

“Please, San Lang.” Xie Lian finally manages to say between his gasping moans. “I need - I’m ready.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.” Hua Cheng asks, his voice gentle even though his pace with his fingers remains firm. 

“Please!” Xie Lian’s ass grinds back onto his fingers desperately, his voice unsteady as he all but wails, out of his mind with arousal and needing Hua Cheng inside him so urgently that it feels like he could die for it.

Hua Cheng’s eyes widen as he nods in agreement, wiping his fingers off on Xie Lian’s bedsheets before he grabs the bottle of lube and coats his cock with some of it, using a little on Xie Lian’s rim to help ease the slide. He lines up slowly, shuffling closer to Xie Lian and holding his hip with one hand, the other holding his cock as Xie Lian’s rim flutters. Hua Cheng pulls his foreskin back with a gentle movement of his hand, ensuring he is properly lubed up before pressing the head of his cock against Xie Lian’s entrance.

And fuck, if just the feel of that ring of muscle against the tip of his cock isn’t almost enough to send him over the edge. He can feel Xie Lian’s rim fluttering beneath his dick, and he takes a moment to inhale deeply before he continues.

“Relax gege. If it hurts, let me know and I'll slow down, okay?” Hua Cheng says, waiting for Xie Lian to nod before he continues, pushing his cock forwards until Xie Lian’s rim stretches around the blunt head and takes him in.

Hot pleasure jolts through him, as though his whole cock were inside Xie Lian and not just the head. Impatient, Xie Lian begins rocking a little on his knees, pushing back and cheekily taking a little more of Hua Cheng. He’s stopped by the hand on his hip squeezing, reminding him to take it slow as Hua Cheng slowly undulates his own hips, pushing a little further in each time.

An odd feeling of breathlessness takes over him as Xie Lian moans softly, every sound going straight to his dick. Xie Lian shifts, his head dropping down as he whines, and something gives way as Hua Cheng’s cock slides in the rest of the way.

Hua Cheng moans at the feeling, sinking deep into the wet warmth of Xie Lian. His breath shudders, struggling to take in air as he bottoms out, pressed so deep into Xie Lian that he cannot possibly get any closer. His blood burns as it races through his veins, his cock encompassed on all sides by Xie Lian’s warmth, his tightness. Xie Lian shifts, moaning softly beneath him, and Hua Cheng’s eyes widen in alarm.

“Gege - gege stop.” 

Xie Lian tenses beneath him, the feeling rippling along his cock, and Hua Cheng groans and lowers his head, his face buried in Xie Lian’s spine.

“San Lang? Is everything-“

“Gege feels so good, I just… need a moment.” Hua Cheng whines as Xie Lian tries to look back at him, shifting on his cock yet again, and Hua Cheng grabs his hips and holds him still, certain that if he moves again he’s going to come before the fun has even started. 

Trying to reorient himself so he doesn’t come, he focuses on Xie Lian, the dip of his spine and the two dimples on his lower back. He has a visible tan line around his waist, one that Hua Cheng runs his fingers along as he inhales deeply, pushing back the fire that burns in his blood until the pounding in his ears dissipates, and he no longer feels as though the slightest movement is going to make him finish inside Xie Lian before he’s even thrusted properly.

Xie Lian’s hair is everywhere, fanned out across the pillow and plastered to his back. Now able to move, Hua Cheng gently gathers it and pushes it over Xie Lian’s shoulder, leaning his whole body down to press against Xie Lian’s back. Nuzzling gently at the back of Xie Lian’s neck, he can feel every shiver from Xie Lian as he kisses a path up to his ear.

He softly nips Xie Lian’s earlobe before rolling it between his teeth, and is unable to hold back his moan when Xie Lian tightens around him, back arching into his chest as Hua Cheng feels the pleasure roll from the base of his cock right up his spine.

“Gege shouldn’t tease.” Hua Cheng warns him with a soft bite to his shoulder, struggling to focus on balancing himself on his forearm as Xie Lian tightens around him again. Hua Cheng runs his other hand down Xie Lian’s side, fingertips grazing along his ribs and down over his hips before he reaches around and takes Xie Lian’s cock in his hand.

“San Lang.” Xie Lian moans, already sounding breathless. His ass pushes back against Hua Cheng’s hips, trying to bury his cock in deeper, but Hua Cheng stills him with a steady stroke of his cock.

“I told gege not to tease.” He murmurs into Xie Lian’s ear, his hand already slick with pre-cum. “Look at you. Do you want me to fuck you?” To make his point, he rolls his hips, pushing his cock in just a little further and hitting that sweet spot deep inside Xie Lian.

He’s rewarded with a desperate litany of please please please and a wriggle of Xie Lian’s hips, as the other man tries to raise his ass higher, anything to try and get Hua Cheng to move. Removing his hand from Xie Lian’s cock, he grabs his hip and thrusts the rest of the way in to the sound of Xie Lian crying out in pleasure. 

“Yes, San Lang, oh -” Xie Lian’s words come in a nonsensical flow, a babbling stream of yeses and ohs as Hua Cheng works out a rhythm, learning the best pace to rock his hips and hit that sweet spot inside Xie Lian. It takes a few minutes for them to match up, for Xie Lian to work out that he feels more pleasure when he lowers his upper body down onto the pillows, leaving his ass in the air for Hua Cheng, and for Hua Cheng to learn that Xie Lian much prefers strong, firm thrusts over quick, shallow movements.

It’s inevitable that he soon feels that familiar electricity at the base of his spine, as pleasure comes in hot flashes with every thrust and rock of his hips. Hua Cheng doesn’t know how long he can last, not for this first time, but he’s determined that he will make Xie Lian come first. He will not chase his own pleasure with no heed to Xie Lian’s.

He lowers his upper body again, laying hot kisses along every inch of skin that he can reach, his free hand once again grazing over Xie Lian’s hips before he takes his cock in his hand.

He’s hard, unbelievably so, and his neglected cock is soaked with his own precum. His walls tighten around Hua Cheng’s cock when he strokes Xie Lian’s, heavy and hot in his hand. It’s overwhelming, and Hua Cheng pants into Xie Lian’s skin as he strokes him firmly, trying to find the balance between thrusting and stroking his dick without coming. 

And then, snapping like a tightly wound coil, Xie Lian comes when Hua Cheng bites the skin of his shoulder, his thumb rubbing over the soaked head of Xie Lian’s cock. His walls flutter and tighten around Hua Cheng’s cock, a low moan tearing from his throat before he can stop it as hot cum spurts over the sheets and Hua Cheng’s fingers.

“I’ve got you, gege.” Hua Cheng whispers into his skin, sweating, holding back so much that it feels as though the heat in his belly is going to burst out of his skin. He strokes Xie Lian through the blissful waves of his post-orgasm haze, and when he feels he can hold it in no longer, he starts to slow his thrusts.

“Gege, I’m gonna-” He starts to pull out, only to stop when Xie Lian shakes his head, blindly reaching behind him to let his fingers grab at Hua Cheng’s thigh.

“Please come inside me.” Xie Lian whines, words almost incomprehensible through his panting. Hua Cheng’s restraint all but snaps at the desperation in his words, still wanting Hua Cheng to fuck him even though he’s come all over the bed already.

Hua Cheng uses his hip as leverage, his fingers gripping hard enough to bruise as he pulls out, only to thrust his hips forward and pull Xie Lian back onto his cock at the same time. It’s a hard, brutal pace, and Xie Lian moans and cries with every thrust deep inside of him, his cock brushing against the bed and smearing ropes of cum around the sheets. 

“Look at me, gege.” Hua Cheng demands, and Xie Lian turns his head, his eyes half-lidded with overwhelming pleasure and his cheeks flushed a beautiful red. The sight tips Hua Cheng over the edge, pleasure so hot it feels like fire in his blood, his whole body shuddering from the blissful feeling. Hua Cheng kisses him, a messy smearing of lips and tongue rather than a true kiss, his hips stuttering as he comes deep inside Xie Lian.

It’s overwhelming, the feel of Xie Lian’s walls milking him dry as he comes, his tight warm heat almost enough to overstimulate him. Hua Cheng lets his head drop forwards, resting his forehead against Xie Lian's back and trying to steady his breathing, his limbs shaking from the strength of his orgasm. Beneath him, Xie Lian wriggles his ass closer, as though he doesn’t want Hua Cheng to pull out at all.

“Gege,” he admonishes, feeling Xie Lian tighten around his cock again. “I’m going to have to pull out soon.”

The noise he lets out at Hua Cheng’s words is almost certainly a disappointed whine, and Hua Cheng can’t help but laugh fondly as he leans up to press a kiss to the nape of Xie Lian’s neck. “But gege, I really want to kiss you properly now.”

Xie Lian is quiet for a moment, his body tense around Hua Cheng before he relaxes, his shoulders slumping down into the pillows as he nods. “There’s tissues in the drawer.” 

Hua Cheng kisses his neck again, the skin damp from sweat, and then slowly pulls out. He quickly leans over to the drawer and pulls out a packet of tissues, and does his best to be gentle as he cleans up his cum as it leaks from Xie Lian’s ass. He does his best with the sheets, but it’s a lost cause at this point, and so he disposes of the tissues in the bin by the desk and returns to the bed with Xie Lian.

The room stinks of sex and sweat, and they’re definitely going to need a hot shower when they wake up, but the sun is beginning to set outside and they’re both worn out enough that the pull of cuddling beneath the sheets is too strong to resist. 

“I’ll wash your sheets in the morning, gege.” Hua Cheng promises, lifting the bedsheet and opening his arms for Xie Lian to join him.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Xie Lian laughs softly, pressing closer beneath the sheets and letting himself be pulled fully into Hua Cheng’s arms. He tangles their legs together, pressing little butterfly kisses along Xie Lian’s temple and down his cheek, stopping only to press a sweet kiss to his mouth. 

“Gege is so amazing.” He murmurs, genuinely in awe at this man wrapped in his arms, so sickeningly in love that he really believes he could just leave everything behind and stay here, if only he would ask. 

Xie Lian smiles, cracking open one eye to look up at him, fond and a little exasperated. “San Lang is the amazing one.” 

Hua Cheng shakes his head, struggling to hold back his own smile. “We’ll have to agree to disagree, gege.” 

He can feel Xie Lian shake his head in turn, his head tilting forward a little to press a kiss to the middle of Hua Cheng’s chest. He then burrows in closer, slinging one arm over Hua Cheng’s waist and hiding a yawn with the other.

“San Lang is too silly.” He whispers, smile still tugging at his lips as he begins to drift off. Here, in Hua Cheng’s arms, his hair disheveled and his face still a little pink from exertion, Hua Cheng thinks he’s the most beautiful person he has ever seen. “My silly San Lang…”

It feels as though Xie Lian has cracked open Hua Cheng’s chest and squeezed his heart with his bare hands. Something deeply possessive surges through him, his arms instinctively tightening a little around Xie Lian. 

Yours, he vows to Xie Lian in his mind, pressing one last gentle kiss to his forehead before he allows himself to drift off again. Only ever yours.

Hua Cheng would like to think that they do a great job of not acting like lovesick idiots after their first night together, but it would be a terrible, bold-faced lie.

They do their best! They’re strict with their time on a morning, always making sure the animals are tended to and that they’re put away at night, but outside of that it really is down to how easily distracted they are. They still get the farm work done, but some nights they don’t return to the farmhouse until long after their usual time, having spent far too long wrapped up in each other. 

Something about sleeping together outside seems to particularly get Xie Lian hot and flustered, and Hua Cheng would be a neglectful boyfriend, after all, if he did not notice it.

He’d be an even worse one if he did not attend to Xie Lian’s every need, and if means they have impromptu sex at any hour of the day, well, Hua Cheng is dutiful and only wants to be the best for Xie Lian.

He burns his shoulders a lot more now, though the benefit is that Xie Lian is often removing his shirt to apply more of his sunscreen.

Xie Lian himself burns his back after a particularly fun morning where they decide to try and switch things around, getting too easily distracted in the heat of Hua Cheng and not noticing until his back feels agonisingly tight, painful enough that he has to lie on his front for the next few days. Hua Cheng dutifully applies an aloe vera gel for the next three days and makes sure that they wear hats for any outdoor activities they get up to, even if they do look very silly trying to kiss and fuck with big hats on.

It’s idyllic and lovely, long days in the sun followed by such close intimacy that Hua Cheng allows himself to forget that the days are passing at all, the clock ticking down until there remains little less than three weeks until the day he leaves.

And then, of the two of them, it’s Xie Lian who cracks first.

“Gege, these potatoes are tiny.” His fingers are covered in dirt, and it’s still so hot for so late in the summer, and his hair is long enough now that he can fully pull it all back into a little stubby ponytail atop his head rather than at the base of his neck, but his hat now sits oddly on his head and he has to keep adjusting it. 

He feels as though his patience might actually be wearing a little thin, because he’s pulling up the potato plants just like Xie Lian told him to, but the little bastards keep snapping off and he has to root around in the ground for them. With his bare hands, because he’d left his gardening gloves in the farmhouse.

“They’re only baby potatoes, San Lang.” Xie Lian huffs out a laugh, his face pink from the heat. He’s still wearing his shirt, his back still sensitive from his earlier burn, and Hua Cheng has already forced a second layer of sunscreen on his arms, to Xie Lian’s protests that he’ll be fine.

“Have we let them grow for long enough?” He asks, skeptical. They haven’t been in the ground for enough time, surely - they only planted them on Hua Cheng’s first day, and that’s little more than three months ago.

“Oh, no, these aren’t the ones we planted.” Xie Lian’s smile is sunshine, as always, and Hua Cheng feels his frustration at the heat seeping away. “I planted these a few weeks before you arrived.”

Oh, that makes sense. Hua Cheng feels a little silly as he pushes up onto his knees to look over the terraces, and sees the flourishing potato plants a few levels down.

“When will we harvest the ones we planted together?” 

“They were bigger potatoes, so we’ll harvest those at the end of next month!” Xie Lian pulls one of his gardening gloves off and removes his hat to push some of his sweaty hair off his forehead. “You’ll be so pleased with them when you harvest them…” 

Hua Cheng looks up as Xie Lian trails off, only to find him standing there, his expression stricken.

Silence falls on them, so heavy that Hua Cheng is convinced he can hear his own heartbeat thundering in his ears. Xie Lian’s eyes widen for the briefest of moment before his gaze drops to the floor, his hands wringing the glove that he holds. His bottom lip begins to tremble, and Hua Cheng’s eyes widen as he swallows thickly.

“Oh.” He whispers, looking lost as the glove falls pathetically to the ground, his expression so raw that Hua Cheng almost thinks he can hear his heart breaking in the quiet afternoon air.

Oh no.

Hua Cheng gets to his feet in the space between one heartbeat and the next, just in time to wrap his arms tightly around him as Xie Lian inhales a sharp sob. It’s a dreadful, shuddering sound, one that stings as it lances through Hua Cheng’s heart, and he tightens his hold and tucks Xie Lian’s head against his chest as the first cry comes.

Xie Lian clings to him, his fingers bunched in the fabric of Hua Cheng’s shirt, trying to muffle the sound of his crying as Hua Cheng holds him tight, one hand on the back of his hair and the other gently stroking up and down his back in an attempt to comfort him. 

“Gege, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

Xie Lian shakes his head, smearing tears into Hua Cheng’s shirt as he burrows into his chest. 

“I don’t want you to go.” His words are softly spoken, shaky from the force of his sudden tears, and Hua Cheng feels tears begin to well in his own eyes. 

Shit, he should have known that the fact they haven’t spoken much about his impending departure could only have meant Xie Lian was bottling it all up, allowing the worry and the anxiety to slide off him in an attempt to seem like everything is fine. 

But it’s not fine. Neither of them are fine.

He’d spent an hour on the phone a week ago, arguing with He Xuan about the possibility of not going back, of working remotely at the farm and taking any commissions there, but he’d made enough commitments before he left that he really does need to return. He has a show in four months at a national art gallery that he hasn’t even started sculpting for, let alone worked on the designs for the interior of the place. He Xuan had made it clear that he needed to return, and Hua Cheng hated him for every word of reason that came out of his mouth.

The only comfort had come from a text that night from Yin Yu, who had kindly pointed out that if he returned to the city he could sort out a long-term lease for his apartment…or organise the sale of it, should that be preferred.

He had also highlighted the final figure Hua Cheng would get for his work at the art gallery, which was… well, it would certainly be far more than he would need if he chose to quit his job completely and stay with Xie Lian for the rest of his days.

“I’ll be coming back gege.” His words are spoken into Xie Lian’s hair as he kisses his scalp, briefly closing his eyes to force back the tears. Xie Lian only whimpers, releasing his hold on Hua Cheng’s shirt to wind his arms around his waist, his grip so tight that it’s bruising. 

Hua Cheng gently pulls him back, enough that he can cup his face in his hands and tilt his head up to look at him. Xie Lian looks devastated, his cheeks red and his eyelashes clumped with tears, his bottom lip swollen from where he’s bitten it to muffle his cries.

“We’ll make it work, okay?” He says, wiping at Xie Lian’s tears with his thumbs and accidentally smearing dirt across his cheeks. “I can come back for winter, or you can come and visit me in the city. And we’ll talk, every day, okay?”

Xie Lian’s eyes flicker back to the ground as he sniffles, looking so desperately sad that Hua Cheng’s heart feels like it is cracking in his chest.

“San Lang will be busy in the city. What if…what if he forgets.” Xie Lian’s voice tapers off into a whisper, but the unspoken fear is obvious, the worry of what if he forgets about me clear in the jagged tone to his words. Hua Cheng shakes his head vehemently, dipping down and smattering Xie Lian’s face in soft, kitten kisses that dance over his nose and eyelids, over his warm cheeks and around his mouth until Xie Lian lets out a breathless, teary giggle.

“That will never happen gege.” He says with a smile, leaning close once more to kiss him deeply, brushing their tongues together and nipping at his lower lip when he pulls away. “I could never forget about you. Everyday, okay? We’ll video call so we can see each other, too.”

“Okay.” Xie Lian’s grip loosens a little around his waist, though he’s still clinging, and his breathing has yet to even out.

“We might need to get you a new cellphone though, gege. I don’t think yours even has the ability to video call.”

“San Lang!” Xie Lian lets himself fall against Hua Cheng, holding onto him tightly and looking up at him with his head resting on his chest. Hua Cheng adjusts, supporting him with his hands lowering to rest on his hips. “I have a webcam on the laptop, you know.”

Hua Cheng affects a dramatic sigh. 

“Oh, so I can only see gege at night in his room, and not during the day when he’s all shirtless and teasing me with his naked upper body. I see.” He leans down, remembering the fact that Xie Lian’s laptop is on his desk in his bedroom, and gently grazes Xie Lian’s ear with his teeth before he whispers, “or if it’s late at night in gege’s bedroom, maybe we can have a little fun?”

Xie Lian gives a scandalised squeak, shaking his head against Hua Cheng’s chest.

“Shameless.” He says with a wet laugh, rubbing at his eyes with his knuckles. “Absolutely shameless.”

“Only for gege.” 

He wraps his arms around Xie Lian, cuddling him close as Xie Lian holds on as though he’d be quite content never letting go.

And really, Hua Cheng wishes that he wouldn’t let him go at all.

Chapter Text

A week before Hua Cheng leaves, he gathers the courage to ask Xie Lian to be the subject of one of his works, something the other man agrees to with a nervous smile.

They move a bench from the courtyard out to a little ledge that looks over the farm, and Hua Cheng drags out one of Xie Lian’s indoor plants to put it by one end of the bench, intending to replace it in his sketches with the elegant branches of a tree. They also turn on the bright outside lights that Xie Lian has on the sides of the farmhouse for emergencies, and they position everything so that the light will not be too bright on Xie Lian as he sits. Xie Lian watches the set up with a fond shake of his head, though his calm and fond demeanour soon turns a little anxious when Hua Cheng hands him the items he would like him to wear.

When he emerges from the farmhouse, his cheeks are almost as red as his outfit.

Xie Lian wears very little, naked aside from a beautiful red silk robe with delicate, highly-detailed white peonies embroidered down the fabric. It drapes loosely over his shoulders, a pretty contrast to his tanned and freckled skin. His long black hair is free from its bun and left to hang wildly down, with only the front sections tied back into a little loose bun on the back of his head. There’s a delicate chain around his neck, from which hangs a pretty crystal ring with a red stone, and he plays with it as they sit for the drawing. Hua Cheng has artfully arranged the rest of the robe so that it looks flattering on him from every angle, though he does feel a little ridiculous.

“Do I not look out of place? No one wears this on a farm.” 

“Does gege not want me to have drawings of him for when I’m feeling lonely back in the city?” Hua Cheng asks with an overly-dramatic pout, focused on drawing every strand of Xie Lian’s hair so that the drawing looks as lifelike as possible.

Hua Cheng has lots of photos in case the early sketches take too long, and some of them are so nice that he really could kick himself for not bringing his professional camera, imagining how much better they could be. His favourite is definitely a side profile of Xie Lian’s whole body as he sits now, seated along the bench with one leg bent and the other left to dangle to the grass below the bench. The robe pools in his lap and drapes down to rest on the floor, and his skin is aglow from the warm light of the lantern behind Hua Cheng. He plays idly with the ring on the chain, his ring finger hooked through it at the first knuckle, and the light reflects prettily off the red stone. The moon is high in the sky but blurred, along with the leaves and branches of the plant.

He looks ethereal and otherworldly. He looks like a god.

“This ring looks expensive.” Xie Lian’s voice breaks Hua Cheng out of his thoughts, and he looks up from the drawing to find Xie Lian has let it slide further down his ring finger. Hua Cheng feels his breath catch just at the sight of it.

“It’s just a bit of costume jewellery, gege, nothing important.” He lies effortlessly, feeling that the truth would be too weighty, could even scare Xie Lian away. He spent his entire childhood hiding the ring from prying eyes, the last and only piece of his mother he had been able to keep. Even at five years old he had known to keep it hidden on the chain she had given it to him with, to downplay its importance to anyone who may have glimpsed it, and it has spent nearly his entire adult life locked in a drawer in his apartments.

Now, he wants to give it to Xie Lian, to hand it over as a promise of what they can be, to show anyone who sees it that Xie Lian is his, but it feels too much, too soon. And so he hides it, pretends it is no more than cheap metal and a fake stone. He’ll tell him the truth later, when he returns at winter.

But as easy as it is to forget, Xie Lian was born into the wealthiest family in Xianle. He’s no skilled appraiser of jewels, but he knows when he’s looking at the real thing, and this ring is no unimportant piece of costume jewellery. He says nothing, wondering why Hua Cheng would play down its value.

If he does not wish to admit what it means to him, Xie Lian will not push. He will only swear to take care of it until the time Hua Cheng decides to tell him about it.

He lets it fall down to his chest, only to look up and find Hua Cheng’s eyes on him. There’s heat in his gaze, sending a shiver down Xie Lian’s spine. It definitely means something, Hua Cheng seeing Xie Lian wear it, so he will keep it safe and treasure it until he finds out why.

Hua Cheng continues his drawing, though he gets up once to rearrange Xie Lian’s robe and take some more photographs. He pulls the arms of the robe off Xie Lian’s shoulders, letting the soft silk pool in the bend of his elbows, exposing a wide, deep ‘V’ down the centre of Xie Lian’s chest. He then curls his fingers beneath Xie Lian’s jaw, tilting his head up, so that he’s sitting there proudly, his gaze fixed on some point in the distance.

Xie Lian feels absolutely ridiculous.

But, with the way Hua Cheng looks at him from the canvas, his cellphone raised to take more images before he begins sketching again, Xie Lian realises something else.

He feels sexy.

The thought of it almost makes him cringe back into himself, pull the robe shut and dip his chin back down to his chest, but he forces it down. The heat of Hua Cheng’s gaze as he returns his pencil to the canvas is one that it’s hard to hide from, and Xie Lian can’t deny that behind the self consciousness, a part of him preens.

Hua Cheng is the most beautiful man he has ever seen, and yet it is Xie Lian who he cannot look away from, Xie Lian who he is staring at as though he means to devour him. He wants to keep the part of him that preens at Hua Cheng’s gaze, to happily and confidently sit there basking in the appreciation of this beautiful man, to feel as though that appreciation is deserved. 

But Xie Lian’s thoughts are his own worst enemy, and he frowns as he looks down at his body. He is too broad, surely, for such a delicate robe like this, and his skin is a mismatch of shades, tan lines criss-crossing his body in so many places from all his different summer clothes. His arms are covered in fine little scars from various nicks and scratches that he has accumulated over the years, alongside deeper, ragged scars from mishaps with tools and the animals.

“Gege looks unhappy.” Hua Cheng observes quietly, adding some detail to the drape of the robe on the canvas. Xie Lian huffs out a disappointed puff of air, annoyed that he has let himself feel this way. He lifts a bit of the red sleeve up as though to demonstrate.

“My arms look too big.” 

Hua Cheng lowers his pencil, peeking out from behind the canvas to give him a look that sets something alight in Xie Lian’s belly.

“Gege, I dream of you pinning me to your bed with your arms and fucking me silly.”

Xie Lian feels warmth bloom across his skin, prickly and heated at the mental image that sentence gives him.

“Oh.”

Maybe it’s not so bad for him to have this body, to have these scars and broad shoulders. He has never been ashamed of it before, though he thinks that might just have been because he was no longer in the city to hear the horrible remarks of other idols. He had been pushed into remaining thin and lithe and toned all at once, covered in makeup to hide the slightest hint of an incoming zit or sniffly nose, and once he had left he had allowed himself to shake off those remarks. He has never felt inadequate in front of Hua Cheng, but then he’s never really felt as though his body is something to be desired and lusted after.

Only now, with Hua Cheng posing him in such a way that makes it quite clear Hua Cheng also loves his body and his almost-unnatural strength, does he feel these old fears coming back to the surface.

“Where did you even get this robe? And the canvas?” He asks, distracting himself from his thoughts, determined to let himself feel as good as Hua Cheng thinks he looks.

“I had my assistant send them.”

“San Lang! It takes weeks for parcels to get here!” Despite his tone, he feels inexorably pleased. 

“Yes. I wanted to draw you like this so much that it was worth the wait.” 

Hua Cheng must have been thinking about this for a long time, and it lights a fire in his belly to know that this fierce and burning want that has tied him to Hua Cheng has been reciprocated long before their first time together.

And the longer he sits there, the more he begins to feel it. Desire, pooling in his groin, like an itch beneath his skin that he cannot shake. The longer he feels Hua Cheng’s gaze on him the stronger it becomes, and Xie Lian feels heat blooming across his skin as arousal sets in. 

He wonders if he should be embarrassed, but the only thing he feels is a sudden and overwhelming desperation for Hua Cheng to notice his fidgeting and do something about it.

He feels the heat flush up his neck, and realises that the pulsing through his cock is because it is steadily hardening beneath the silk. There is enough fabric gathered at his waist to hide it, but when he shifts out of restlessness it falls over his thigh, giving him an obvious tenting through the silk.

If he moves to hide it, Hua Cheng will notice. If he does not move, Hua Cheng is less likely to notice, but then Xie Lian is going to die from all the pent up arousal.

But then, of course, Xie Lian underestimates how attentive Hua Cheng is. Within the space of a minute he hears the scratching of the pencil come to an abrupt halt, and Xie Lian forces his shoulders to relax when he feels that gaze burning through him.

When he turns his head to look at Hua Cheng, the other man looks like he wants to devour him. Xie Lian swallows thickly, forcing himself not to look away when their eyes meet. Hua Cheng’s expression is not unlike that of a tiger who has stumbled upon its prey, wide eyed but delighted.

“Forgive me, gege. Have I been neglecting you?”

Xie Lian hums, turning away to look over the farm. “I’ve been sitting here for hours San Lang, nearly naked, and you haven’t been affected at all.” He sniffs dramatically, a smile tugging at his lips, one that only widens when Hua Cheng puts his pencil down and approaches him.

“Oh, believe me gege, I’ve been wanting to fuck you since you put that robe on.” Hua Cheng’s words cause arousal to flash hot through Xie Lian, punctuated even further when Hua Cheng sits opposite him on the bench and grabs his thighs, pulling Xie Lian firmly onto his lap.

Xie Lian feels sparks shooting through his groin and up his spine as his cock grazes against the strained fabric of Hua Cheng’s pants, his cock hard and warm beneath Xie Lian’s. He helplessly grinds down, whimpering, and sees a flash of pure desire in Hua Cheng’s eyes.

Within a moment, the robe is parted, and Xie Lian is lifted off Hua Cheng’s lap to sit along the bench. Hua Cheng slides off it, getting onto his knees before he parts Xie Lian’s legs and mouths urgent, wet kisses to the base of Xie Lian’s shaft, the soft skin of his balls, before giving a broad lick from the base to tip of his cock.

It happens so dizzyingly fast that Xie Lian is moaning before he’s even realised what is happening, his hips already bucking into Hua Cheng’s hand when he wraps it around Xie Lian’s cock.

Hua Cheng takes him apart effortlessly, his thumb pressing into the vein on the underside of his cock as he takes the head into his mouth, licking a firm stripe over the slit before he sucks, gently at first as Xie Lian moans into the night. Xie Lian leans back to hold himself up on one elbow, his other hand twisting in Hua Cheng’s hair as the other man bobs his head, his tongue doing sinful things to Xie Lian’s cock.

Xie Lian comes so hard that he’s unsure if the stars behind his eyes are from the real sky or the force of his orgasm. Hua Cheng sucks him through it, his tongue lapping at Xie Lian's cock, swallowing every drop of cum and looking all the world as though he loves it.  

When Xie Lian lies back on the bench, unable to support his own weight for much longer, he feels wobbly and almost as though he is floating. He covers his eyes with his forearm as Hua Cheng chuckles and rises to his feet. The lack of a kiss makes Xie Lian pause, but his confusion is answered when he hears the shutter of Hua Cheng’s camera on his cellphone several times as Hua Cheng captures his image.

“San Lang?” He asks, his cheeks warm. He can’t imagine it is a very attractive photo, him laid out blissfully on the bench with a silky robe around his arms and his cock out, half-hard as it rests on his lower belly.

“I’m sorry, gege, you looked so lovely that I didn’t think to ask. Do you want me to delete them?” Hua Cheng says, his voice strained. Xie Lian peeks at him, feeling soft and fuzzy from the afterglow, and sees how hard Hua Cheng is trying to hold it together. 

Xie Lian doesn't think he himself can hold it together for much longer, and he's already come once this night.

“You can keep them…” He says airily, feeling the warmth inside him steadily burning away, stronger now despite his orgasm. “…if you take me to bed. Now.”

Hua Cheng stares at him for a moment, almost as though the request is completely unexpected. Xie Lian enjoys that, knowing he has taken him by surprise. He so rarely does it, so easily flustered by Hua Cheng and his flirting even after everything they've shared already.

Hua Cheng begins packing away his stuff, but Xie Lian can feel his eyes on him as he stands up, adjusting the robe so that it covers his shoulders. When he turns, Hua Cheng grins, already ready to go back inside. Xie Lian takes his free hand, pulling him back in the direction of the farmhouse.

As they return to the bedroom, the canvas left on its stretcher in the living room, Xie Lian marvels at the way Hua Cheng almost seems to worship him. His hands skim over the silk as it clings to Xie Lian’s body, his lips pressing against every inch of exposed skin as his fingers run over the soft fabric, touching Xie Lian so gently that it makes him ache. 

Xie Lian keeps it on as he’s hoisted into Hua Cheng’s lap on the bed, letting the fabric fall from his shoulders to pool at his elbows, as Hua Cheng runs his hands all over his body beneath the silk. It flows over their skin as Xie Lian rides Hua Cheng, the ring around his neck glinting in the lamplight, the space between them infinitesimal when Hua Cheng pulls him down and holds him close. They try a new position that night, laid out languidly on their sides, Hua Cheng fucking into him from behind as he plants warm kisses along his shoulder, up his neck and along his jaw until Xie Lian turns his head and captures his lips with his own.

Hua Cheng’s hand is as hot as a brand where it is splayed across Xie Lian’s belly, stoking the fire within him as it presses into his skin with every thrust inside him.

Gods, he loves him. 

Xie Lian desperately wants to tell him so. But he knows that Hua Cheng has a life in the city he needs to go back to, a job that he must do and people he cannot disappoint. Xie Lian would tell him he loves him, but he knows that doing so would guarantee that Hua Cheng will not leave, and Xie Lian does not want to be the one that holds him back.

He will tell him when he returns. He will say it at every opportunity, whisper it into his skin and make it clear with every action he takes.

Selfishly, when Hua Cheng is asleep in his arms that night, sprawled over Xie Lian and holding him close, Xie Lian confesses it in the quiet of the darkness knowing that he will not hear it.

“I love you, San Lang.”

Hua Cheng puts off packing his stuff up for as long as he can, until the morning of his departure arrives and he and Xie Lian enter his room together to fill his two bags that he came with. 

Xie Lian sits on the end of his bed as Hua Cheng folds clothes and collects his personal items from around the bedroom and from the bathroom. He hasn’t slept in this room for weeks, not since the first night he and Xie Lian slept together, so he double checks every drawer to be sure he hasn’t left anything important.

“Before you go, I had something I wanted to give you.” Xie Lian says, getting up from the bed and briefly leaving the room to grab something from his own bedroom. When he returns, he is holding a  lumpy package that is wrapped in fine tissue paper and tied with a deep red ribbon. He sits down next to Hua Cheng on the bed, his fingers worriedly rubbing at the end of the ribbon.

Curious, Hua Cheng eyes the gift, wondering what could possibly be inside. Xie Lian smiles at the expression he sees on his face, and gently places the package into Hua Cheng’s lap.

“I know when San Lang first went into the village, you liked Ban Yue’s scarves. I got her to show me how to make them, and she gave me some of the yarn from the sheep we sheared together.” He explains, laughing self-depreciatively and wiping at his teary eyes with his thumbs. “It was really hard to try and finish it in the dark with you asleep next to me, but San Lang is a heavy sleeper.”

Hua Cheng carefully unties the ribbon and unfolds the tissue paper, holding his breath as he does so. Inside is a folded, homemade wool scarf, made from a beautiful deep crimson yarn with silver threads running through it. It is finely knitted, though there are a few dropped stitches and occasional lumpy ones, and when he unfolds it he realises it is long and wide enough that it can be worn as a shawl if he wishes.

He runs his fingers over it, and finds that it is as soft as it looks, and warm too. There’s a certain pleasure in looking at it, feeling it, knowing that it comes from the sheep he’s helped to feed and care for, from the shearing session they did together. Even more to know that Xie Lian himself has made it, created something personal for him to remind him of their time together. Even worked on it at night, which already is implying something hugely significant - Hua Cheng has never felt safe enough to sleep heavily in his life. The fact that he does so here, in Xie Lian’s bed, deeply enough not to notice his lover knitting in low light speaks volumes to how safe and content he feels here.

Across from him, Xie Lian watches his face carefully, his fingers worrying at the bedsheets and his expression nervous.

“It’s a little lumpy, and I’ve never used needles so fine before so it got really tight in places, but I hope you like-!” 

Hua Cheng kisses him, stopping his worry in its tracks. He raises a hand to gently cup Xie Lian’s jaw, and the other man melts into his touch, the tension bleeding out from his shoulders. They tip back until they’re laying side by side, the scarf trapped between them and Xie Lian’s arms already winding around Hua Cheng’s waist.

“Is that a yes?” He asks, holding back a giggle as he shuffles closer, stealing another kiss before Hua Cheng answers.

“I love it, gege.” I love you, he does not say, not now, not so close to his leaving. He wants to say it, feels it desperately trying to burst out of him, but he will not do it, will not confess love when he is about to leave. It will make it harder, he is sure, and he does not want to put the burden of that on Xie Lian.

He sits up briefly, rewrapping the scarf in the tissue paper before he leans across and places it atop his bag. When he lies back down with Xie Lian, he reaches out for him, one hand cupping his jaw as he kisses him softly, sweetly, smiling at the pleased hum that Xie Lian gives him for the kiss.

As his other hand begins to drift low, skimming along Xie Lian’s waistband, he tries not to think about how this will be their last time for months. He has had their last night together, their last meal, their last sleepy morning waking up tangled beneath the sheets, and now they’ll have their last round of lovemaking before he has to go.

The sex is slow, unhurried, as though they could stretch out one moment into a thousand just to spend a little more time together. Hua Cheng kisses I love you onto Xie Lian’s skin, a litany of kisses from his collarbone down to his cock. I love you with a kiss to his sternum, I love you bitten into his hipbone, I love you, I love you, I love you. He cleans Xie Lian up, kisses away his tears when Hua Cheng pulls out and holds him just as tightly as he is held in turn.

“It’s only four months, gege.” He murmurs, pressing a light kiss to his temple, his embrace so tight that it’s a wonder Xie Lian can still breathe. “It’s not that long at all.”

It sounds hollow to his own ears. Four months may not be that long, but it has been long enough for them to fall in love. 

How quickly those four months have flown by, when he knows that the next four may very well drag on for an eternity.

They finish his packing quietly, the silence only punctuated by Xie Lian’s occasional harsh inhales as he holds back his tears. Hua Cheng makes sure to leave some things behind, if only so that Xie Lian is not left with a house that has no trace of Hua Cheng at all, as though he were never there.

He leaves his cologne in the bathroom, his hoodie in the bedside drawer and his sunhat on the hook on the back of Xie Lian’s bedroom door. Some of his sketches he leaves on the coffee table near the couch, including the one he drew that night that he and Xie Lian fell asleep under the stars. He leaves his sleeping clothes under one of the pillows in Xie Lian’s bed, and his farming shoes in the rack by the front door, all of it bound to be found by Xie Lian, and all of it making clear that he will be returning. 

He carefully packs the scarf away, the weather being too warm still to wear it, and then looks back at the bedroom he’d spent the first few months sleeping in. It looks as it did the day he arrived, but he soothes the pain of that idea by remembering that there are far more reminders of his presence in Xie Lian’s bedroom alone.

Just before they’re ready to leave the farmhouse, there’s a knock at the door, and both of them open it in confusion, wondering who it could be. To their surprise, it is Xie Wan and Chen Hui, both of them carrying a basket each full of food. 

They greet them with smiles, though Xie Lian is clearly confused when they enter the farmhouse. 

“Mama, popo, did you walk all this way?” Xie Lian says, a touch of concern in his voice as he leads them inside. Chen Hui waves her hand at him as if doing so could make his concerns disappear, heading over to the table to put down both of their baskets.

“I used to walk it several times a day when I first inherited this place. It is only forty minutes.”

Hua Cheng holds back his laugh at her facial expression. They almost certainly did not walk it in forty minutes, not with how Chen Hui has slowed a little in her old age, but to her credit she does not look as though she has overexerted herself.

Hua Cheng thinks he knows why they have walked this distance, and he is immensely grateful for it.

“Thank you.” He whispers quietly as Xie Wan pulls him into a goodbye hug, his relief so strong that it could buckle his own knees. They may not be a full distraction when Xie Lian returns this evening, but at least he will not be returning to an empty farmhouse, forced to eat alone once more.

He returns her hug a little awkwardly, aware that she is the first person aside from Xie Lian that he has allowed to hug him in years.

“Travel safe.” She says, releasing him with a smile. “We shall see you in winter, yes?”

He nods, swallowing thickly when she gives his arm a gentle pat. She turns to Xie Lian as he approaches, reaching out to pet her hand over his hair, which he is wearing down for today. 

“We’ll be here when you return.” Xie Wan leans across and presses a kiss to his hair, kind and knowing in the way only mothers can be, and Xie Lian is so grateful that he cannot and will not even think to be embarrassed by the idea that he needs his mother at thirty-one years old.

“Ruoye won’t need feeding until I’m back. Don’t let her fool you.” He warns with a watery smile, before he averts his eyes and makes his way over to Hua Cheng’s bags, desperate for a way to distract himself. Hua Cheng watches him grab them and take them outside, before he says his goodbyes to Xie Wan and Chen Hui and follows him out.

He has one last goodbye to make here at the farm, and he clicks his tongue against his teeth to get Ruoye’s attention. She has wandered up to the farmhouse, her attention caught by Xie Wan and Chen Hui, so she isn’t far when he calls for her. She circles him and Xie Lian when she gets close, her thick tail thumping against his lower legs, and he drops to his knees to take her heavy head in his hands.

“You’re gonna be good?” He asks her, grinning when her tail wags faster on the floor of the courtyard. He ruffles her fur, giving her body a long scratch before he gets to his feet and scratches behind her ears.

It feels strange to look over the farm once Xie Lian has placed his bags into the truck bed. There is still so much to do, plenty of fruits and vegetables that have not yet been harvested, (and he had been looking forward to harvesting the zucchini and making outrageous jokes with Xie Lian over them, but they are not ready, and Xie Lian will have to harvest them alone), and leaving now just feels wrong. It feels as though a piece of lead has settled in his gut, and Hua Cheng has to admit to feeling a little heartsick as he takes one last look at the terraces, the red roof of the barn at the bottom of the farm, the distant shape of the hens and the sheep and the different shades of greens from all the plants that are yet to be harvested.

“Ready?” Xie Lian asks from where he’s standing by the truck, patiently waiting for Hua Cheng. 

No, he thinks, not certain he’ll ever be ready to leave. He sighs, giving Ruoye one last scratch before he heads over to the truck.

With a bittersweet final look at the farm, he climbs in.

They’re quiet in the minibus, their hands intertwined between them. Xie Lian’s grip is so tight that Hua Cheng’s can feel his own pulse in his fingers, throbbing with each beat of his heart. His throat aches with the pain of oncoming tears, his whole body tense as he tries to hold them back.

There’s no point looking out the window - his vision has become blurry and his eyes sting with the unshed tears that are waiting to fall. Xie Lian is actually crying, if the damp patch on his shirt is anything to go by: Hua Cheng simply lowers his head to press a kiss to Xie Lian’s scalp, and feels his breath catch when Xie Lian buries his face further into Hua Cheng’s chest.

They hold each other as the minibus continues, until it reaches the stop outside the closest village, where the second bus will come for Hua Cheng.

It is here that they will separate. Xie Lian feels sick, standing on the side of the road with Hua Cheng and his bags, one of Hua Cheng’s arms slung around his waist and holding him close. They talk quietly, intimately, even though no one is around to hear them. It is mostly things they have spoken on before, how much they’re going to miss each other.

Xie Lian is even brave enough to ask what Hua Cheng’s plans are when he gets back to the city, only to feel the punch to the gut when Hua Cheng says counting down the days until I can see you again.

The bus pulls up far too quickly, and Xie Lian is glad that the bus stop is empty aside from the two of them. He could not bear for there to be witnesses here, not now. The bus driver disembarks at the sight of Hua Cheng’s bags, lifting the door of the storage area and reaching for Hua Cheng’s bags with a polite hello. 

Hua Cheng lets his fingers drift below the neckline of Xie Lian’s shirt, feeling for the chain and the ring that hangs around his neck. He tugs it free, and his gaze is unreadable as he looks at it. 

“Will you tell me why it’s important? Before you go?” Xie Lian asks, his voice trembling, tilting his chin up to look at him directly. Hua Cheng shrugs.

“It’s nothing, gege-“

“San Lang. I know real rubies when I see them.”

Hua Cheng hesitates, looking as though he’s internally chastising himself for not thinking of that sooner. 

"It was my mother’s.”

Xie Lian can’t help the sharp inhale that causes him to gasp. “San Lang! I can’t take this, it’s too important!”

Hua Cheng shakes his head, tucking the ring back inside Xie Lian’s shirt.

“I want you to have it. Think of it as a promise.” Hua Cheng doesn’t have to say what that promise is, and Xie Lian doesn’t need him to explain it. The promise is heavy, it is serious, but Xie Lian feels his stomach swoop with giddy anticipation at the thought of it.

“I’ll keep it safe.” Xie Lian sounds determined, and Hua Cheng smiles fondly at him, reaching out to tuck a tendril of Xie Lian’s dark hair behind his ear.

“I know you will.”

Xie Lian feels the sadness begin to churn again inside him, a wave of it crashing into him in the vulnerable moment. His lower lip begins to tremble, and he throws himself into Hua Cheng’s arms and winds his arms around his waist.

“I’m going to miss you so much.” He admits, his eyes teary and his throat beginning to ache again. Hua Cheng kisses his temple and holds him just as tightly, crooning softly to comfort him.

“I’ll miss you too, gege. So much.”

Xie Lian buries his face in Hua Cheng’s hoodie one last time before he pulls away, sniffling. His eyes are red and he knows he probably looks a mess, and it makes him feel even worse to see that Hua Cheng is the same, his eyes rimmed with red and biting his lip so hard that it’s close to bleeding. 

Their last kiss is wet and slow, salty from their tears and gasping from trying to hold back their tears. Xie Lian lets his fingers tangle in the shorter strands of Hua Cheng’s hair, standing on his tiptoes and kissing him deeply, savouring the feel and the taste of Hua Cheng. 

It feels wrong, this separation, and his eyes well up once more. There’s nothing he can do, knowing he cannot ask Hua Cheng to stay, no matter how much he wants him to. 

And Hua Cheng knows that as much as he wants to avoid the separation, Xie Lian will not come with him, and Hua Cheng will not stay unless he is asked.

There’s a banging sound as the storage area for the bus is closed. Xie Lian bites his lip, inhaling sharply as he releases Hua Cheng and forces himself to step out of the warm circle of his arms. His eyes are so teary that it’s difficult to see clearly, but he reaches up to cup Hua Cheng’s face in his palm and stroke away a stray tear from his cheekbone.

“Let me know you get to the airport safely?” Xie Lian asks, aware that Hua Cheng has a nightmare of travelling ahead of him. Fortunately, Yin Yu has arranged for him to take two flights this time, rather than the flight, two trains and the bus journey that he had to take on the way here. Now, he only needs to get the bus to the nearby town, and from there he has a flight to Wuyong, and then a flight onto Xianle.

“I will. And I’ll message you when I land, and when I’m getting the next flight after that.”

Xie Lian nods, swallowing thickly. The bus driver throws the two of them a look, feeling sorry for them but equally impatient and needing to continue the journey. 

This is it, he thinks. The awful moment where they separate, knowing it will be a long time before they’re back in each other’s arms.

Hua Cheng offers him one last embrace, holding him so tightly that he struggles to breathe.

“Goodbye, gege.” He whispers, his breath skittering over the shell of Xie Lian’s ear. Xie Lian closes his eyes tightly and feels the tears falling fast onto the fabric of Hua Cheng’s hoodie.

“Goodbye, San Lang.”

Chapter Text

To: San Lang
Have you got to the bus station yet?
21:18

To: Gege ❤
I reached the airport gege! Signal was bad through the mountains so I couldn't reply at the bus station. -_-
04:31

To: Gege ♥
Did gege sleep well?
04:32

To: San Lang
Not really, I wanted to be sure you got to the airport okay. I couldn’t sleep anyway.
06:33

To: Gege ♥
Aw, does gege miss me already? ;)
06:46

To: San Lang
Yes. I really do. It’s already so strange without you here.
[media attachment]
Xiao Bao is wondering where you are!
06:49

To: Gege ♥
I suppose you can give her a pet from me.
I'm about to board soon. Wuyong Airlines doesn’t have wifi, the planes are ancient. I’ll text you when I land?
07:10

To: San Lang
I know you secretly love that chicken, San Lang!
Have a safe flight ^-^
07:15

To: Gege ♥
I landed in Wuyong :) I know you're busy during the day, so I’ll call you when I get back to Xianle. I miss you a lot, gege, I wish you were here with me :(
11:52
Undelivered

Hua Cheng stares down at his phone, frowning at the little red exclamation mark that shows up beside his message to Xie Lian. Around him, people are pulling their bags out of the airplane’s overhead lockers, but Hua Cheng ignores the rush, pushing down on resend until it fails again.

Perhaps it’s the signal? Wuyong is a shithole after all, the most outdated town he’s ever visited. He wouldn’t be surprised if the cellphone towers are decades old.

A little concerned, he pushes the worry from his mind, grabbing his own bag from the overhead locker as the plane begins to empty out.

He’ll try again in the airport.

Three days later, Hua Cheng reluctantly finds himself back in his studio, drawing up plans for the mural in the new art gallery. Yin Yu sits on his right, the pair of them working to tally up the number of artworks that will go in the accompanying exhibition. 

Yin Yu is arguing that Hua Cheng should backfill it with some of his other works - Hua Cheng is absolutely certain that there is no need to, that he can produce enough work alongside the mural in the four months they have. 

“I’m concerned that four months is just not enough time. I know you work fast, sir, but to fill a gallery space this large?” Yin Yu asks, hesitant to question his boss. Hua Cheng waves a hand to allay his concerns.

Of course it’s enough time - he’s already started, in fact. That first night, when he’d arrived back at his empty apartment, his head and heart still full from his and Xie Lian’s parting, he had immediately gotten to work. In those three nights and two days since he’d arrived back in Xianle, he has barely slept, working on the painting of Xie Lian that he had brought back with him.

It only needs a few final touches and then it will be finished. Not that that painting will be going into the exhibition, but still - it makes his point. He has more than enough inspiration to create several paintings, and he plans for the mural to match them in theme. He’s thinking plenty of native plants, flowering along the walls, perhaps with a wide, colourful expanse of rice terraces along the lower half of the wall. 

They work in a comfortable quiet for the next few minutes, as Hua Cheng finishes off the first sketch of the mural and sends it off to He Xuan to forward onto the art gallery. 

It has barely arrived in the man’s inbox before he hears the sound of a door opening on the floor above, and Hua Cheng rolls his eyes at Yin Yu when they hear footsteps on the stairs.

The door bursts open, far more loudly than is necessary, and He Xuan barges into the studio with much more noise than someone of his size and stature should be able to make.

“You’re back.” He says, his tone bored, though the fact that he’s here implies he is curious enough to want to know about Hua Cheng’s trip. “Did you find yourself in the great outdoors?” 

“Yep.” Hua Cheng takes care to really pop the end of that word, barely glancing up at He Xuan before he looks back down at his tablet. “Almost didn’t want to come back. But I missed your miserable face.”

Beside him, Yin Yu coughs into his fist, a poor attempt at disguising his laughter. Hua Cheng smirks at him, waiting for the sarcastic rebound, but there is only silence for a moment before He Xuan continues.

“So, when’s the wedding?”

Hua Cheng looks up at him, his brows furrowed. “Excuse me?”

He Xuan scoffs, leaning against the doorway and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Please, Yin Yu told me you asked him to send your mother’s ring. I’m assuming you didn’t give it to that sheep you sent a photo of.”

Hua Cheng throws a look at Yin Yu who, to his credit, doesn’t even flinch.

“I gave it to a chicken, actually.”

Yin Yu fails miserably at suppressing a snort of laughter, and He Xuan’s scowl is truly something to behold, so Hua Cheng continues. “She was called Xiao Bao.”

“Fine,” He Xuan spits, handing over his tablet to Hua Cheng with his scowl deepening. “Keep your secrets. Not like I was interested anyway. Take a look at this commission and see if you think you can get it done.”

Hua Cheng takes it with a roll of his eyes, refusing to bite back if only because he wonders if this could be the type of commission he could do at the farmhouse once he returns. 

It’s a topic that he brings up with He Xuan, if only because he knows it will piss him off. The other man is stressed enough with Hua Cheng working on the floor below and taking commissions in the city he lives in. If Hua Cheng moves to the other side of the country, he’ll be even more of a nightmare to manage.

It makes him smirk, just a little, because winding up He Xuan is so easy.

Later, when both men are finally gone from his studio, Hua Cheng looks back down to his cellphone, at the last message he sent to Xie Lian the day prior.

To: Gege♥
Is everything okay? I haven’t heard from you in a few days and I’m getting worried.
18:29
Undelivered.

Unusually hesitant, he presses the call symbol next to Xie Lian’s contact and brings his phone to his ear, a heavy hope in his chest that it will finally ring. There’s silence for a moment, as Hua Cheng holds his breath, only for the now-familiar three tonal beeps to sound, signalling that his call has yet again failed to connect.

Disheartened, Hua Cheng lowers his phone, and tries not to overthink it.

Unfortunately, it becomes impossible not to overthink it.

Hua Cheng’s messages fail to deliver, and every call he makes fails to connect. As one week passes into two, into three, and then into a whole month, Hua Cheng becomes torn between trying to figure out what is going wrong, and trying to come up with excuses for the silence. 

Perhaps Xie Lian is busy, and has not gotten around to responding to him? Perhaps he is not able to contact Hua Cheng by cellphone anymore, and Hua Cheng simply needs to wait for a response through other means? 

So Hua Cheng works. He paints. He sculpts. 

The final count for the art gallery is one sculpture and twelve paintings of varying sizes. Some nights find Hua Cheng painting long into the early hours of the next day, sketching and lining and painting in a frenzied fashion. One painting he completes in three days - another, he takes three weeks just to sort out the line work. There are other elements, too, that take time. He wants a wall full of greenery, alive and maintained throughout the exhibition. Yin Yu is in charge of that, whilst He Xuan orders a loom on Hua Cheng’s orders, to be put in the gallery space for visitors to work on. 

Almost all of it is inspired from things he learned at the farm, though he changes them up, hides details that could be identifying in order to protect Xie Lian.

And through all of it, He Xuan questions and teases him about your precious gege, and Hua Cheng does not have it in him to say that he has not heard from Xie Lian since the day he left.

And, after sending several letters to Xie Lian, Hua Cheng is running out of excuses to make.

Two months pass without a word from Xie Lian, and Hua Cheng decides to send one last letter to him before he vows not to bother him again for the duration of their separation. He is not giving up, merely giving Xie Lian the space he needs if he requires it.

And deciding to send that letter is how Hua Cheng ends up here after posting it, in a grimy alleyway a few blocks from his apartment, holding the scruffiest kitten he has ever seen by the scruff of its neck as it yowls weakly and tries to paw at him.

He had seen it out of the corner of his eye, trying to eat from a broken trash bag that hadn’t been placed into the dumpster correctly. Hua Cheng had walked past at first, a grimace twisting his lips, before he’d gotten about ten steps away and immediately imagined what Xie Lian would do in this situation.

He could almost hear him saying San Lang, we can’t leave it there! What if it needs a home?

So he had stopped, his fingers tightening around his umbrella handle, and closed his eyes with a sigh.

And then he had returned to the alley, and scooped the little beast up.

It’s a pathetic scrap of a thing, black fur matted and dirty and so small that it looks no older than four or five weeks, though he suspects that it could be a week or two older. It’s so light that he only needs to use his thumb and forefinger to hold it, so he shifts his hold until it settles in the palm of his hand.

The kitten is underweight, the bones of its ribs visible even from where it curls up in Hua Cheng’s palm. When it blinks up at him, eyes big and wide, he startles to notice that its right eye is a dark brown, and the left a deep red.

The opposite of his own.

Maybe all his time spent with Xie Lian really has softened him in more ways than simply his love and devotion for Xie Lian, because something inside him rebels at the notion of simply putting the kitten back down on the floor and leaving it. With a sigh, as though he already knows exactly what is coming, Hua Cheng briefly looks around the rest of the alley to see if there is evidence of a mother cat, or perhaps other kittens that would imply a litter that the kitten should not be separated from.

Predictably, there is nothing, save for the ripped open trash bag and the dumpster. 

“Fucking hell.” He grumbles under his breath, unzipping his jacket a little and holding the kitten to his chest with one hand in an attempt to keep it warm.

After a visit to the vet, he learns that the kitten is female, seven weeks old, and in dire need of food and a safe place to stay. 

Which is how Hua Cheng ends up the reluctant owner of a small, feisty kitten.

He is loaded up with flea and worming treatments to give to the kitten, and after spending a small fortune on vaccinations he heads to the nearest pet store to get supplies, as well as to find some toys to keep her occupied and a shampoo to get rid of the smell. She seems content to sit in his arms as he looks through the store, though he doesn’t think he appreciates her attempts at using his fingers as chew toys.

He spends far longer in there than he intends, if only because the sheer amount of toys available for a kitten seems frankly ridiculous and a little overwhelming. 

“How about this?” He murmurs, picking up a wooden cat wand with a felted chicken attached to the end with string. The kitten’s ears perk up as her beady little eyes fixate on it, but then Hua Cheng frowns and puts it back. 

Best not to encourage the thing to develop a love for chasing chickens - he doesn’t think Xie Lian will appreciate that when he returns in winter.

Struggling for a moment, Hua Cheng swallows past the lump in his throat at the thought of Xie Lian and all his undelivered messages, and instead picks up a cat wand with a fish on the end to purchase instead.

“I can’t believe you got a fucking cat. You. Since when did you give a shit about animals?” They’re the first words out of He Xuan’s mouth when he enters the art gallery, after receiving a photograph of E-Ming from Yin Yu, who has the unfortunate responsibility of looking after his boss’ new kitten whilst Hua Cheng works at the gallery. 

“I found her in an alley coming back from the gallery last week. Couldn’t just leave her there.” Hua Cheng shrugs, then briefly picks up his cellphone to find the same photograph from Yin Yu of E-Ming trying to crawl up the curtains in his apartment.

“Yes you could have. You come back from this farm and you’re like a lovesick teenager, saving kittens and thinking of marriage. You’re scaring Yin Yu.” 

Hua Cheng holds back his derisive snort, focusing on mixing his paints, but he can understand the sentiment. Had he been told before he left for Xie Lian’s farm that he would return, in love and ready to leave his entire career behind, he’d assume it was a terrible joke.

Now, all he wants is to return to the farm, to the warmth of Xie Lian’s arms.

He Xuan seats himself near the ladder that Hua Cheng is working from, balancing his laptop on his legs as he handles calls regarding the work of Hua Cheng and other artists that he manages. Most of them are diverted to his laptop, though every now and then his cellphone vibrates loudly off the hardwood floor.

“Why the fuck is your phone constantly vibrating?” Hua Cheng asks in irritation, his patience wearing thin as he paints another fucking set of flowers on the wall, nearly painting outside his lines as the noise from the cellphone startles him. 

“It’s not my fault you’ve got some weird fucking fans. Texting about where you live and wanting your number and shit.” 

Hua Cheng frowns, his eyebrows furrowing together as he looks down at He Xuan.

“Block the number then? It’s bad enough having to listen to you talking on the phone.” 

He Xuan sits back against the wall with a huff, rolling his eyes at Hua Cheng when he thinks he cannot see him. “I’m trying, alright? This is the third number that’s messaged me.” 

That’s…a little concerning. He doesn’t usually have more than one person at a time trying to meet him in real life, though he supposes that his brief hiatus did bring him more attention than he had intended.

“If some weirdo turns up at my door with a knife ready to truss me up and cannibalise me, I’m blaming you.” 

“I should be so fucking lucky.” He Xuan murmurs under his breath, prompting Hua Cheng to flick his paintbrush down in his direction, splattering paint over his laptop.

“I’m going to let my cat shit in your office for that.”

“Do that and I’ll burn the personal invitation to the gallery opening that I had printed for you to send to your boyfriend.”

Hua Cheng raises his eyebrows, lowering his paintbrush away from the wall as he looks down at He Xuan. 

“Yin Yu make you do that?”

“Of course. I’m not going to come up with that idea, am I?”

Hua Cheng likes the idea, and hates it at the same time. If his letters have garnered no response, will this? Would Xie Lian not simply get annoyed at Hua Cheng’s persistence if he sends it himself?

“I think you should send it to him.”

“The fuck? It’s your boyfriend, why won’t you send it yourself, sign your name on the bottom so he knows you sent it personally?”

Hua Cheng pauses, the paintbrush drooping between his fingers as he sighs. His breath catches in his throat, but he pushes through, knows that at this point he cannot keep it quiet any longer.

“He hasn’t spoken to me since I left the farm.”

Silence falls for a moment, as He Xuan’s eyes narrow, clearly digesting this piece of information.

“I thought you were texting him, video calling him? That’s what Yin Yu said you planned to do.”

Hua Cheng only shakes his head in response, unable to bring himself to say the words aloud.

“No.”

“Well, fuck.” A pause, and then, “what are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know.” Hua Cheng admits, refusing to look down at He Xuan and see the look on his face.

“What about your apartment? Yin Yu is getting it ready to put up for sale.” 

Hua Cheng shrugs, unable to stop himself from laughing a little bitterly. “I’ll still sell it. Maybe fuck off somewhere and set up a farm of my own.”

“Shit.” He Xuan runs his hand over his face, genuinely surprised by the revelation. “I don’t know what to suggest.”

Hua Cheng returns to his mural, dipping his paintbrush into the paint once more.

“Neither do I.”

Hua Cheng is in his studio when it finally hits him.

There is little else he can do short of getting on the next plane and heading back to the farm himself. He has texted, he has sent letters, he had Yin Yu contact the farming initiative that he’d first been paired with Xie Lian through only to be told they couldn’t share data like emails, he’s called Xie Lian’s number from different cellphones only to still not get through.

He feels helpless, his plans scuppered by this strange turn of events. Does he still go back to Puqi Village once his art show has opened? He had planned to return only a few days after the last of his commitments in the city, but he and Xie Lian had yet to book any sort of travel, so the dates aren’t set in stone. Does he take the chance and go back anyway, only to risk being turned away?

He’s pulled from his thoughts by Yin Yu, who has finished working on all the invitations to the gallery opening, and is completing a final set of sneak-peak photographs from Hua Cheng’s studio to be released on his social media over the next few weeks. 

“Did you send it?” Hua Cheng asks, his voice a little quieter in the late hour of the day. Yin Yu nods, his hand tightening around his camera bag.

“I sent a leaflet for the opening of the art gallery, and I included the invitation He Xuan made along with it, with your return address inside.” 

Both of them know that it is a long shot, that Xie Lian is unlikely to respond to this after months of no contact, but it has to have been worth the try. Perhaps it will prompt Xie Lian to get in contact, even if it is just to send a letter asking Hua Cheng not to come once he has finished at the gallery. He would do anything for just a scrap of information from Xie Lian, something to help him understand what went wrong.

“Thanks.” Hua Cheng murmurs, nodding to Yin Yu as he leaves the studio, his face perfectly calm but an undoubted expression of pity in his eyes.

Sighing, he returns his attention to the statue he is working on, trying hard to ignore the anxiety that twists his stomach into knots. 

The statue is undoubtedly his best work so far, even though it is unfinished. It’s a couple of weeks from being ready for the mold to be made, but even in it’s half-finished state, the piece looks impressive. It will be the centrepiece of his final display at the art gallery, along with his paintings which showcase different moments from life on the farm. He knows that the nostalgia of rural life, of living simply, is something that resonates a lot within the art world, and he thinks it will be a good way to bow out - the art gallery had been enthusiastic enough when he sent through the brief on what he would be displaying.

The sculpture is of Xie Lian, half turned to look over his shoulder with a smile on his face. His hands grip at the straps of the basket on his back, filled with long beans and turnips, though Hua Cheng has yet to fully define them within the weave of the basket. He wears simple, loose clothing, the clothes and his long hair fluttering out as though caught in a warm breeze. It’s not perfect, and it never will be to Hua Cheng, not compared to the beauty of Xie Lian in person, but it is close enough that Hua Cheng’s heart pangs with every detail he carves into the face.

Now, as he works his fingers through the clay, detailing the soft bangs that hang around Xie Lian’s face when his hair is down, something painful and bitter shifts into place in his chest like a shard of glass beneath his skin, stinging sharply with every breath he inhales. It feels like panic, the slow ache of a heart cracking and, for the first time since he arrived back in the city, Hua Cheng cannot will it away with hopeful excuses and attempts to find reason in Xie Lian’s silence. 

He lowers his hand, staring at the smiling face before him, and finds that the urge to sculpt has abandoned him in favour of a yawning sadness that he cannot shake.

Hua Cheng pulls the scarf Xie Lian gifted him off the back of his chair, moving to sit down in front of the statue with it unfolded and wrapped around his shoulders like a shawl. If he really inhales deeply, there’s still the faint scent of the farmhouse, of Xie Lian in its soft fibres. 

That shard of glass in his chest digs in deeper, and Hua Cheng stares up at the statue with tears beginning to form in his eyes.

“Gege,” he whispers, his breath hitching as he curls his arms around his bent knees. “What happened?”

The ache is unlike anything he has ever felt before, wholly emotional but as painful as a real wound, and the worst of it isn’t even from the feeling of rejection, but the not knowing. What could have happened that Xie Lian would ignore his calls, what could have occurred in those few hours during his flight that would put Xie Lian in the frame of mind where he wouldn’t even respond to Hua Cheng’s letters? He had put his return address on there, along with an email if Xie Lian would have preferred that instead, but no, nothing.

It aches worse than the pain of their separation, because at least then he had the hope and knowledge that four months would be all it took before they could be together again. Now, the potential date of his return to the farm approaches, and Hua Cheng is no longer certain of if he will be welcome. He will go, because he needs to know that Xie Lian is okay, but he is terrified of being turned away.

He shudders beneath the scarf, winding it tighter and burrowing his face into the folds of the knit, failing to hold back the tears that slip down his cheeks. E-Ming, hearing Hua Cheng’s sniffles, wanders out of her bed to paw at his legs, and Hua Cheng scoops her up into his lap with a frown.

“Stupid cat.” He murmurs, half in annoyance at her need for attention, and half in affection. Her claws dig into his thighs as she settles down, and Hua Cheng lets his fingers run through her coat.

Just one month is left before the opening of the art gallery and his final exhibition. He looks around the studio, at all the finished artworks he had been inspired to create when he returned from the farm. Just one month, and he will finally know what happened to cause this silence.

At the foot of the statue, E-Ming in his arms, Hua Cheng stares out the large windows into the Xianle night, and allows his grief to take hold.

One month more, and yet it seems so terribly far away.

Chapter Text

The drive back to the farm feels long.

That’s the only way Xie Lian can describe it, every minute dragging on by as the minibus returns to the village. The rolling hills, the rough little roads and the sun beginning its descent on the horizon, all of this simply passes him by, as he checks his cellphone repeatedly in the hopes of hearing from Hua Cheng. 

It makes him feel sick, every minute dragging him further away from Hua Cheng. It still feels inexplicably wrong, and there is a part of Xie Lian that wishes he had begged Hua Cheng to stay.

Xie Lian would never have done so. Hua Cheng has a life in the city, a job and a home and good prospects. How could Xie Lian have asked him to stay, knowing that when Hua Cheng returns to the city he may realise that the faster pace of life really does suit him more than the slow life of the farm and the village?

When he returns to the farmhouse, all the animals have been put in for the night, and his popo has made his favourite spicy mushroom dumplings whilst his mama has tried her best to make him some stir fried vegetables to go with them. 

The most heartbreaking moment of all is when he first arrives, and Ruoye bounds out to greet him, barking at the other side of the truck and whining when the door does not open, and Hua Cheng does not step out.

He barely sleeps that night, only becoming alert when his cellphone beeps with the text messages from Hua Cheng. Xie Lian feels restless as he waits for them to come through, anxious knowing that Hua Cheng cannot even reply to him often due to his flights. Is this what it is to be like for him now? Constantly waiting, listening for the sound of his cellphone vibrating?

He is kept busy the next morning with the chickens and the sheep, though he keeps his cellphone on him. He snaps a photo of a petulant looking Xiao Bao and sends it to Hua Cheng, smiling when the response comes through.

“He says hello.” Xie Lian murmurs to the chicken, running his finger over the soft feathers on her head before he puts the eggs to the side and lets the chickens out. Everything takes twice as long, and Xie Lian’s heart aches just a little knowing that it’s because Hua Cheng really did make a difference even in the little jobs at the farm.

Oh, how he misses him already.

And unbeknownst to Xie Lian, his luck is about to run out.

He doesn’t notice it at first, since Hua Cheng is on his flight, and so Xie Lian doesn’t realise that he can no longer feel his cellphone in his back pocket when he climbs out the truck in the village. He helps his mama and popo with some maintenance in their home as thanks for looking after the farm the day before, and sits with them for a light lunch before he is due to return to the farm.

“Have you heard from Hua Cheng? How were his flights?” His mama asks, her hand settling on his forearm in a gentle clasp, her expression one of maternal worry for her son and his newfound loneliness.

It is only then, when he reaches into his pocket to take out his cellphone and show his mama Hua Cheng’s texts, that Xie Lian realises it is gone.

Feeling rude, but desperate, he excuses himself in a panic and retraces his footsteps as though his very life depends on it.

Xie Lian feels his heart sink into his stomach, knowing immediately what he’s going to find when he returns to the farm. He drives much faster than he ever has down the back roads to his home, and when he pulls up at the top of the hill, the black and silver remnants of his cellphone are visible where they glint in the grass.

“No, no no no.” Xie Lian rushes out of the truck, bending down to find his instincts are awfully correct. His cellphone has been crushed, the plastic sides splintered and the glass screen cracked, and he knows before he even tries it that pressing the button on the top won’t encourage the screen to come on.

He tries anyway, but his hope at seeing the screen turn white instantly shatters when it cuts off. The battery is exposed at the back, and with the best will in the world he knows it isn’t going to work.

His luck would not have it any other way.

Xie Lian feels his breath hitch, frustrated tears gathering in his eyes. How had this even happened? Even if it fell out of his back pocket as he got in the truck, what on earth were the chances that he would then run it over? He hardly speeds off in the damn thing!

For it to be damaged so badly, it looks as though he has run it over at high speed with the truck full of compost. It had been such a sturdy cellphone, surviving drops and all manner of accidents through the years - how had this been the occasion that it failed?

Shoulders slumping, Xie Lian curses his bad luck. Perhaps Hua Cheng really had been a good luck charm, since he hasn’t had any accidents or problems the entire time Hua Cheng has been with him, and yet this happens on the very first day he is gone from the farm! Oh, he will probably find this hilarious when Xie Lian gets a chance to tell him-

On his knees in the dirt, Xie Lian’s train of thought comes crashing to a halt, his entire body stiffening as he stares down at the splintered remains of his cellphone.

It dawns on him, with increasing horror, that he now has no way of contacting Hua Cheng.

One month in, and the first letter arrives.

Xie Lian has worn himself ragged trying to think of what to do. 

He’d tried to get a new cellphone, but when he’d taken the trip to the nearest town to purchase one, the guy behind the counter had explained that they don’t really sell them to fit the size of his SIM card anymore, so he would have to get a whole new cellphone, and in his panic Xie Lian hadn’t even though to ask about keeping his old number, hadn't even realised that was a thing that could be done these days.

When he’d returned home and realised he now had no way of contacting Hua Cheng, he’d spent hours searching the internet for any trace of Hua Cheng, but aside from numerous articles and websites devoted to following his art career, there had been nothing that could get him contact with him directly. Xie Lian had managed to find the contact number for his agent under Hua Cheng’s emergency contact for his placement at the farm, but when he had called and given his name, the brusque man had claimed he had no idea who Xie Lian was and promptly ended the call.

Xie Lian has contacted him several times since, even from his mother and grandmother’s cellphones, to no success. He’d also contacted the company he’d used to get Hua Cheng in the first place, but had been told they couldn’t share that information.

With no way to contact Hua Cheng, Xie Lian had been forced to simply wait, and the pain of it is agonising. He wants to reach back into the day Hua Cheng left and shake both of them silly, wondering why they ever allowed themselves to separate when their only form of contact had been through the damned phones. 

And so, when his grandmother lets him know that Mrs Luo had told her a letter had arrived for him at the grocery store, he’d dropped almost everything to head into the village and pick up his mail.

His hopes are dashed almost immediately. 

The letter is from Hua Cheng, but unfortunately that is about the only thing that he can glean from it.

It looks as though it has been diverted through at least two mail offices, going by the multiple stamps on the envelope, and the address is almost so illegible that Xie Lian can only make out the postal code because it is written in numbers, and even then he can only do so if he squints and tilts the paper.

Really, there had been no hope of reading the characters within. He thinks he can make out his name, only because it is the first set of characters on the paper, but the rest is so unreadable that it might as well be a different language altogether.

Gods, he can’t even tell if Hua Cheng signed it San Lang or Hua Cheng, or if he even used his name at all! It is truly baffling how that can even be the case, given that the characters are hardly similar to each other!

Xie Lian leaves the store, his shoulders slumped, and meets the concerned gaze of his mother as she waits for him outside.

Wordlessly, he hands the letter to her, leaning back against the wall of the grocery store and sighing so heavily that his whole body heaves with it. She takes it, frowning down at it in an expression that he imagines is a mirror of his own when he first looked at it, then holds it out at a distance as if doing so will help her to decipher it.

“Oh no, did no one teach this boy how to write?” She asks, pulling it closer to try squinting at it instead. Xie Lian lets out a helpless laugh, running his hand over his face and shaking his head.

“No, mama, they did not. He taught himself.”

“Hm.” She lowers the letter, handing it back to Xie Lian. “Well, I suppose no son-in-law can do everything. He was beginning to seem too perfect.” 

“He might not become your son-in-law if I don’t find a way to fix this.” Xie Lian says, covering his face with his hands and groaning. All he needs is an email, a return address, a phone number and he could sort all of this out, rather than leave Hua Cheng thinking that Xie Lian has chosen not to talk to him after his return to Xianle. 

Xie Wan loops her hand through his arm, shaking her head as she leads him away from the grocery store. “He will understand, I am sure. I saw how he looked at you. I think he will only be relieved that all this comes down to a broken cellphone, and that you are safe and well.” 

Xie Lian smiles at her, only a small smile, but he appreciates her attempts to make him feel better.

“I just wish I had some way of contacting him. If I knew where he lived I could write, or have a brief visit in the city.”

“I know. I have confidence this will sort itself out, somehow.” Xie Wan pets his arm gently, and Xie Lian has no choice but to agree with her.

After all, he doesn’t even want to think about what it means if she is wrong.

Autumn drags on slowly, as Xie Lian harvests potatoes and last year’s mushroom crop, collects the apples from the trees in the orchard and ensures everything that is left to harvest is collected on a rigid schedule. His work on the farm continues, drags ever on as letters that he cannot read keep arriving, and his hope for a way to fix this before the season is over diminishes with every day that passes.

Moreover, he is simply terrified that Hua Cheng will take this silence as a rejection, and that he will never return to the farm at all.

The anxiety inside him builds up, until he spends his days feeling sick as it churns inside his stomach. He doesn’t eat properly, unable to bear sitting at his little kitchen table on his own, unable to force his own food down his throat as he wonders if his life will return to this, to silent meals and an empty house.

He had been content with it, before. So why, now, does it feel as though that life of his is simply not enough? 

It builds up inside him, until one rainy afternoon when Xie Lian finally just snaps.

He is thinking about it, worrying too much and allowing it to consume him as he returns to the farm one evening with Ruoye at his heels, until he crosses the threshold into the courtyard of his home and it suddenly hits him.

He may never see Hua Cheng again, may never be able to contact him, and Hua Cheng may think that Xie Lian had chosen to abandon him. It is cruelly, awfully unfair.

Xie Lian sobs in frustration, pulling at his hoodie to get it off, shake off the suffocating feeling that is wrapped tight around him. The sheer agony of it, he thinks as he throws the hoodie to the floor of the courtyard, that San Lang has sent him a letter, but he can’t read most of it and the return address is nearly illegible.

He paces, restless, his tears cold on his cheeks as he frets, trying to figure out what he can do.  In the very worst case scenario, he can return to Xianle and contact his old agent, try and figure out if they can arrange a meeting with Hua Cheng. It’s not ideal, since although he is an old and forgotten idol, someone will notice his return and turn it into their next scoop. He has fled Xianle and disappeared once before, but he’d rather not have to do it again, especially as it was difficult enough when smartphones had only just entered the public sphere.

But he would risk it, would go through it again if only for the chance to see Hua Cheng and explain what had happened to him. 

Smiling sadly at the thought of his love, he raises his hand to his chest to play with the ring, something he does often now whenever he thinks of Hua Cheng.

Only to feel his heart drop into his stomach when his fingers touch nothing but his t-shirt.

“No.” He turns, lurching for the discarded hoodie on the floor, shaking it to see if the ring falls out. Nothing drops, and Xie Lian feels sheer, utter panic begin to set in. “No, no no no.” 

Where could it have gone?! He drops down onto his hands and knees in the dirt, running his hand over the floor, trying to feel the chain or see the ring. He tips up buckets, pulls out all his spades and shovels and secateurs, empties the wheelbarrows and shoves aside all of his wheelbarrows in the hopes of seeing the glint of it, to no avail. His fingernails snap and split in the dirt, sore at his fingertips where he runs his hands over grit and gravel and hard soil, but through his blurry vision it is impossible to find.

Defeated, he sits back on the floor, bringing his knees to his chest as he finally allows the dam to burst. Xie Lian wishes he was a composed crier, but he is not. He is snotty and loud and weepy, hot tears running down his cheeks in rivulets, his sniffles wet as they echo through the courtyard.

Ruoye approaches him silently, her soft paws padding quietly on the ground. Her ears are down, her tail low to the floor as she sits down beside him. She stares at Xie Lian for a moment, as though expecting him to look up at her, and when he does not she whines at him and paws at his leg until he relents.

“I’m sorry, Ruoye.” Xie Lian wipes at his eyes and looks up at her, only to freeze when he sees her. The silver chain hangs from her jaws, and when his eyes follow down the silver links he sees the ring, dangling unharmed from the chain. 

Xie Lian holds his hand out, stunned into silence, and feels his heart squeeze when she leans forward and drops it into his palm.

The relief hits him in waves, his breathing hitching at the sight of it, safe and sound in his hand. 

Unable to hold back his sob, he falls forward and wraps his arms tight around Ruoye’s neck, crying into her soft fur.

The very next day, salvation comes in the form of a forest-green envelope, addressed to Xie Lian, that he picks up from Mrs. Luo’s shop with trepidation at the unfamiliar mail.

It is very official looking, and just from holding it he can tell that there is a leaflet or card of some sort inside. It is very confusing to look at, and the address is printed, so it is unlikely to be a letter from Hua Cheng.

He doesn’t have any active subscriptions or is on any mailing lists, and he’s never received any newsletters or anything of the sort since moving to the farm, so what could it be? Hope ignites in his chest, but he dare not trust it, not until he has ripped open the envelope with his mother carefully looking over his shoulder.

When he pulls out the leaflet, printed on card and very glossy and elaborate, he feels as though he is a puppet whose strings have been cut, such is the relief that washes over him in a wave.

It is an invitation, printed on very nice card with high quality graphics, and the text on it is fully printed and fully readable. It invites him to visit the opening of Hua Cheng’s exhibition at the new art gallery in Xianle, giving him a date and a time and, crucially, it points out that the artist himself will be present for the opening evening.

The date is for less than three weeks from now.

Xie Lian looks up, feeling as though his legs could collapse under him as he hands it to his mother. Xie Wan looks over it, her eyebrows raising, and when she looks back at her son they both nod in a silent understanding.

“You will go?” She asks, handing him the invitation back. Xie Lian nods, biting his lower lip as he looks down at the glossy leaflet.

“Will you and popo be alright with the farm?”

Xie Wan waves a hand, nodding as they begin to walk back towards her home.

“You’ve harvested nearly everything. I think we will be fine with collecting eggs and feeding sheep.”

“Okay.” Xie Lian laughs, a little breathless, and so relieved that it hurts. “Okay, I’ll go. I’ll - I need to-“

Xie Wan pats him arm gently, guiding him towards where his truck is parked instead. “Go home and sort out your travel. You can always come back for dinner later.” 

“I will. I - thank you, mama.” Xie Lian leans down to kiss her cheek, hugging her tightly before he grins and rushes to his truck.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks before he goes, but the most important thing is that he is going.

Soon, he’ll get the chance to see Hua Cheng again.

The next three weeks drag. 

It is agonising how slowly time passes once he has booked his plane tickets and a hotel in Xianle. Perhaps it is the anticipation, or the worry that Hua Cheng will turn him away, or even the general fear that the thought of returning to Xianle ignites in him. 

Perhaps it is all three at once.

The next three weeks drag, but soon Xie Lian finds himself outside the airport, staring up at the departures sign and feeling so anxious that he wants to be sick.

He’s nervous, he can’t lie. 

Xie Lian hasn’t flown on an airplane in years, and now he’s about to get on two in as many days. It’s terrifying and a little nerve wracking, especially as he first enters the airport. He had spent years being hounded by cameras in airports, followed through to lounges with cameras in his face and persistent paparazzi waiting for him. He’d barely been able to go to the toilets to piss in peace, and when he’d left Xianle and taken his mother with him, he’d bought a shitty car with cash and driven the long miles himself.

But when he enters the airport the relief hits him, and his shoulders drop down as he relaxes. No one recognises him here, no one is looking for him. No one is searching his face for a man who was younger, slimmer, his hair short and his arms and hands unlined with scars. He is a normal man, on a normal journey to a big city, and if anyone looks twice at him it is only because he has the nervous look of someone who hasn’t flown in years.

To his surprise, it all goes smoothly.

His flights are calm, his bags are not lost, and nothing breaks or goes missing between him boarding and getting off. He is on time, barely, as he transits through Wuyong, and nobody looks twice at him aside from the old lady he’d been seated next to on his second flight, who only tried to make small talk by asking him where he was from and where he was going.

Perhaps, he thinks, that this is Hua Cheng’s luck rather than his own, and his smooth journey back to Xianle is simply because Hua Cheng wants him there.

There is a moment, the very briefest of moments, where he stands in the arrivals section of the Xianle airport and feels utterly unable to leave through the glass doors, when his past almost catches up to him and he vividly recalls leaving through these same doors, cameras shoved in his face and lights flashing with every click from an unwanted photograph. He has to stand for a moment to the side of the doors, peeking out every time someone leaves until the memory fades and he realises that no, he truly is anonymous here. It has been a very long time since he left Xianle, and he looks nothing like the worried, scared young man that he was back then.

When he finally leaves the airport, he realises that it is no longer the city of his memories. Much has changed, so much is different and so much is the same, but Xianle simply remains a city that he used to call home, and now it is somewhere familiar and different all at the same time. The buildings remain the same, but the people are different, and Xie Lian has changed so much that he views it in a completely new light.

It takes him an hour to get to his hotel and shower, and before he knows it he is heading to the new art gallery with the invitation tucked safely into his pocket. The taxi journey is the longest car ride of his life, and he feels sick to his stomach with worry and nerves about Hua Cheng will take his sudden appearance. Xie Lian chews at his lower lip until it bleeds, and then he picks at his fingernails until the taxi pulls up outside the art gallery and he has no choice but to get up and get out.

This is it, he thinks, terrified.

There’s a part of him that feels utterly ridiculous, worries that he should have left the basket of produce he carries in his hotel room and perhaps dressed a little nicer, but he’d needed an apology present and none of his old fancy clothes fit him anymore. And besides, it’s his San Lang, he won't care that Xie Lian is carrying a basket of fruit and vegetables, and he’s certainly not going to care if Xie Lian turns up in a suit or in his nice cream sweater with black pants.

And it really is a nice sweater, and maybe Xie Lian really needs to stop panicking about the sweater and go inside.

His legs feel like jelly as he walks up the steps to the art gallery, the basket held so tightly in his hands that it cuts into the skin of his fingers. He hands the security guard the invitation with a shaky hand, his heart hammering in his chest as the basket is searched and he is waved through.

Once inside the large circular room, Xie Lian’s mouth falls open in shock.

He had known Hua Cheng was talented, but this? This is beyond anything he could have imagined.

Every wall in the display space is hand painted with an extensive mural, depicting so many flowers that Xie Lian struggles to spot two of the same. They’re all flowers that he recognises, white ones from the apple trees in the orchard, yellow luffa flowers and pink ones from the potatoes, as well as so many more that he’d be standing there all day identifying them. 

At various points in the mural, several paintings hang as though they’re dangling from different vines. Xie Lian automatically moves towards them, curious to see how Hua Cheng’s artistic skills translate to a painted medium.

Xie Lian feels his heart ache in his chest at seeing the paintings up close, so vibrant and full of life. To think he had worried so much that Hua Cheng would return to the city and realise that his time at the farm had been boring, when in fact Hua Cheng had been painstakingly recreating those scenes at the farm with such love visible in every stroke of his paintbrush.

He has always known his life at the farm is slow-paced and likely to be too slow and too insular for many to follow, and he had resigned himself to being on his own for so long. To see this, to see how Hua Cheng views his life in much the same way he does, sees the nature around the farm as beautiful as Xie Lian finds it, is as wonderful as it is overwhelming. 

With his focus on the wall space, it takes him longer to notice the statue in the centre, though when he finally spots it he ends up rooted to the spot, staring up at it in what can only be awe.

He can find no words within him to describe the statue. It is beautiful, magnificent in the detail and the way Hua Cheng has managed to convey the wind blowing through Xie Lian’s clothes and his hair. It looks so realistic that Xie Lian could be convinced he is looking in a mirror, only he’s certain he has never been so beautiful. Is this how Hua Cheng sees him? Happy and carefree, and so content that it practically radiates from his entire being? 

He wants to find someone, needs to find someone, because surely Hua Cheng must be here, must be somewhere in the room for the opening night of his own exhibition? His fingers tighten around the basket handle, his eyes darting around the room to try and spot that familiar shade of crimson, the black hair that is probably shoulder-length by now.

Xie Lian steps backwards, head turning to try and find him, suddenly desperate, only for his back to collide with something solid behind him.

A familiar hand settles at his hip, steadying him. Xie Lian feels his breath catch, his shoulders tightening as he recognises that touch and the warmth of the body behind him. His hands begin to shake, and Xie Lian forces himself to take another steadying breath as he briefly closes his eyes to steel himself for any possible rejection.

When he turns around, joyful and worried and excited all at the same time, he finally comes face to face with a shocked Hua Cheng, who stares at him as though he is looking at a miracle, hardly able to believe what he is seeing.

“Gege?”

Chapter Text

“Gege?” 

Xie Lian barely hears the word, so full of disbelief and spoken with little more than a shocked breath. Hua Cheng looks at him as though he believes he might be hallucinating, and Xie Lian doesn’t even think twice about it as he lets the basket fall to the floor and closes the distance between them.

He all but barrels into Hua Cheng, nearly knocking them both over, but Hua Cheng steadies them with a hand on Xie Lian’s back. It hits him then, the fear that he had been consumed with earlier, and Xie Lian grips Hua Cheng’s shirt in his fingers as he chokes on a sob, trying to convey his jumbled thoughts before Hua Cheng can send him away.

“I tried to contact you, but the cellphone broke and I couldn’t get your number and when I called he-, I’m sorry, and your letters I couldn’t, I couldn’t read-“

Xie Lian babbles, unable to stop the nigh-on incomprehensible stream of words in his attempt to explain as quickly as possible, tears already slipping down his cheeks. There is panic and relief swirling into a sickly ball in his stomach, and he breaks off with a stuttered sob as he clings to the now-crumpled silk of Hua Cheng’s shirt.

“Gege.” Hua Cheng stops him, warm hands cupping Xie Lian’s jaw, his thumbs wiping away the tears even as they gather in his own eyes. “I’m just happy that you’re okay.”

Xie Lian nods, coughing out a sob as he holds onto Hua Cheng’s wrists, feeling elated and happy and terrified all at once. He lets go only to close the distance again, winding his arms around Hua Cheng’s waist as he hugs him, and the warmth of Hua Cheng’s arms around him makes him feel like returning to a warm home after the bitterest of icy days. 

Hua Cheng holds him, only murmuring soothing words until Xie Lian feels that the urge to cry has passed him by. He reluctantly pulls away from Hua Cheng, knowing that more needs to be said, and then leans down to pick up the dropped basket from the floor.

“I brought you this. An apology present.” Xie Lian says, wiping at his eyes as he lifts up the small basket of produce. He feels a little self conscious as he pushes it into Hua Cheng’s hand. “I know it’s silly, but I wanted you to be able to try some of the vegetables you helped grow.” 

He watches as Hua Cheng lifts the lid of the basket, huffing out a laugh when he sees potatoes, broccoli, soybeans and apples, as well as many different leafy greens underneath.

“Did gege bring me the whole farm?” He asks, a small smirk on his lips, and Xie Lian can’t help if his laughter comes out a little wet.

“It was all I could fit in there.” He says, his cheeks turning pink. He still feels a little silly, but the smile Hua Cheng gives him is absolutely worth it.

“Thank you gege.” Hua Cheng says it as if Xie Lian has handed him the greatest gift of gold, and not simply a basket of vegetables.

Before Xie Lian can respond, Hua Cheng glances around, noticing that there is more than one pair of eyes looking their way. Aware that he’s standing there with a damp patch from Xie Lian’s tears on his shirt, and given Xie Lian’s intense wish for privacy after leaving Xianle, he takes Xie Lian’s hand in his and begins to lead him out of the gallery.

“Come on, gege, we should go somewhere quiet to talk.”

Xie Lian tugs at his hand, bringing Hua Cheng’s attention back to him. “San Lang, it’s your exhibition. We should stay.”

Hua Cheng huffs out a breath, shaking his head with a smile. “I wasn’t planning on staying much longer anyway. I’d rather we leave and have a chance to talk alone.”

Xie Lian nods, biting at his lower lip as he looks around the room. “Okay, but can we come back another day? I want to see your work.”

“If gege really wants to.” Hua Cheng agrees, leading Xie Lian through the gallery and out into the entrance foyer.

“I do, San Lang-“ Xie Lian stops as they reach the doors, looking back at one of the advertising posters for the exhibition. “Your works are so amazing. You made the statue look so beautiful.”

“I made it look like you.”

Xie Lian laughs, feeling tears burning at the back of his eyes again. They stare at each other in the foyer, Xie Lian in disbelief and Hua Cheng with an earnest expression that makes Xie Lian’s heart stutter in his chest.

“We should…” Hua Cheng breaks the silence, and Xie Lian nods, falling back into step with him as they exit the gallery onto the street outside. He’s surprised when Hua Cheng leads him over to a sleek red car parked a little ways down the street - how had he not known that he had a car in the city? It’s bigger than he would have expected too, though he supposes that as an artist Hua Cheng wouldn’t be able to transport his works of art if he had a sports car.

“Would you prefer if we went to a cafe?” Hua Cheng asks, but Xie Lian shakes his head. He wants to speak to Hua Cheng privately, knowing that this type of conversation cannot be had in a coffee shop.

“I have a hotel, but…” Xie Lian trails off, strangely uncertain if he is able to even ask what he is thinking, but somehow Hua Cheng knows.

“Come back with me, gege. My apartment isn’t far.” Hua Cheng tugs him closer as he speaks, pressing a featherlight kiss to his hair that Xie Lian cannot help but lean into.

“Yeah, okay."

They’re quiet in the car, Hua Cheng focusing on getting to his apartment whilst skirting the speed limits as Xie Lian looks out of the car window. They’re heading deeper into the fancy part of the city, though Xie Lian struggles to recognise many of the newer buildings. Xianle is a prosperous, wealthy city, but it hasn’t always been the most advanced, and the pace of development in the city had made him dizzy before the era of smartphones and advanced technology. 

It isn’t a surprise to Xie Lian that they pull into the underground parking garage of one of the tall apartment blocks, but it does surprise Xie Lian how nice it is. Hua Cheng takes Xie Lian’s hand as he leads him to the elevators, and of course he lives on one of the higher floors that offers the better views of the city. Xie Lian is full of anticipation as Hua Cheng keys in the code for his apartment - this will be the first time he sees Hua Cheng’s home, and he’s curious. He wonders if it will look anything like how he imagines, or even if he’s imagined it correctly in the first place.

And most importantly, once they’re inside the apartment, they can finally talk.

It’s nice, fancy, the sort of place Xie Lian would stay at frequently when at the height of his modelling career or when travelling with his father to learn the business. It’s precisely because of that that he realises that as an apartment, as a home, it’s practically bare. There’s artworks on the walls, but they don’t look anything like Hua Cheng’s other works, so he assumes they’re simply bought in. The furniture all matches perfectly, and there’s no other photo frames or personal touches, no hoodies thrown over a sofa back or open books on side tables - it’s as though Hua Cheng simply pointed to a page in a designer’s brochure and ordered everything within it, and then left it at that. 

Suddenly, he understands exactly what Hua Cheng meant all those times he insisted his apartment was not a home. There’s more traces of Hua Cheng’s presence in the farmhouse.

“I’ll make us some tea.” Hua Cheng murmurs as Xie Lian kicks off his shoes, with only the sound of his feet padding softly along the floor to indicate Xie Lian has followed him.

Xie Lian sits down on one of the stools in front of the kitchen island, watching Hua Cheng as he moves around the kitchen. He’s pleased to see that the cupboards are full, at least, though there’s far too many brands of instant coffee in there.

He’s surprised, however, when Hua Cheng pulls out a familiar brand of green tea along with two cups.

“Oh, you started drinking the tea I have?” He asks, fingertips brushing the box as Hua Cheng fills the teapot with boiled water.

Hua Cheng’s cheeks pinken, and he shakes his head. “No I just, the smell of it brewing reminded me of the farm.”

Xie Lian’s eyebrows raise, his heart aching a little at that. That Hua Cheng would miss the farm to the point he’d brew a tea he didn’t even particularly like, it hurts. He’d known their separation must have been as painful for Hua Cheng as it had been for him, but at least Xie Lian had known why the contact between them had been cut. Hua Cheng had no such knowledge, no warning: he’d simply been left to wonder what had happened, knowing his letters were going unanswered.

He slips off the stool as Hua Cheng brews the tea, wanting to say something, anything, when he’s distracted by the creaking of a door opening.

Xie Lian’s heart stops, terror flashing through his blood like a lightning bolt as he wonders if there is someone else here, if maybe this is why Hua Cheng hasn’t kissed him yet-

His panicked brain calms when instead of a person, a small black kitten darts out from the open door on the other side of the living area, making a beeline straight for Xie Lian.

“San Lang, you got a kitten?” His voice is full of barely disguised excitement as he bends down to catch E-Ming, lifting her up and laughing as she rubs her head into his chest.

“She’s called E-Ming. I found her under a dumpster, but be careful gege she’s a beast.” 

“No she’s not, she’s cute.” Xie Lian scratches between her ears, feeling the vibrations of her purrs through his chest and throat. “Ruoye hasn’t seen many cats, I wonder if they’ll get along.”

Hua Cheng looks up at him, a heavy pause hanging between them before Xie Lian’s eyes widen.

“Ah, that is, if you’d still want to come back with me, I’d understand if you didn’t-“

Hua Cheng stares at him, his mouth open as though he means to speak but is struggling to parse through the words, before his shoulders lower a little. “I wasn’t sure if gege wanted me to come back.”

He speaks those words quietly, but Xie Lian feels them like a knife in his heart. The very idea of it is preposterous, as though Xie Lian hasn’t spent the last few months in despair, wondering if his abysmal luck had cursed the very best thing that had ever happened to him. 

But again, he knows that, but Hua Cheng has no such reassurance.

Realising that this may very well be an occasion where what he does may be more important than what he says, Xie Lian lets E-Ming jump out of his arms onto the floor and steps around the counter between them.

Hua Cheng’s gaze never leaves him, sharp even though the lines of his shoulders are tense. Xie Lian steps into his space, sees and feels the breath that Hua Cheng releases, the heat of his body close enough to be shared.

“San Lang,” he murmurs, letting his knuckles graze along Hua Cheng’s jaw as he feels a hand settle on his waist. “Of course I want you to come back to the farm with me. I want you to stay with me there, for as long as you’ll have me.”

“Gege.” Hua Cheng breathes his name out like a prayer, one that is swiftly kissed away by Xie Lian as he leans up on the tips of his toes to press their lips together.

From the moment their lips touch, it feels as though every line of tension seeps out of their bodies, the fear and worry that has been present since Xie Lian arrived at the gallery gone with something as simple as a kiss. Hua Cheng slides his arm around Xie Lian’s waist, tugging him closer as Xie Lian lets his arms loop over Hua Cheng’s shoulders. 

It feels so wonderful that Xie Lian could whimper, melting in Hua Cheng’s arms at the simple press of a warm mouth against his own. He has missed this, missed Hua Cheng, his San Lang, who had lit up those darkened dusty corners of Xie Lian’s life and who he has felt oddly adrift without these last few months.

When they part, it’s to find that Hua Cheng has wound his arm low around Xie Lian’s waist, and Xie Lian’s hand is curled around the nape of Hua Cheng’s neck.

Hua Cheng smiles down at him, scarcely able to believe that even one hour ago he thought he’d never see Xie Lian again, and now here he is in his apartment, in his arms. Xie Lian returns his smile, steady, before his lower lip begins to quiver.

Familiar now with Xie Lian’s tells, he pulls the other man closer into a tight embrace as the first sob escapes his throat. They aren’t the explosive tears from that day long ago on the farm, but Xie Lian still shakes in his arms, and he can feel a damp patch growing on his silk shirt.

“I’m here, gege.” He murmurs into his hair, feeling the tension in Xie Lian’s body as he holds him. It is hard to hold back tears of his own, and so he does not try to. It has been an emotional few months, and as much as Xie Lian’s tears pain him, he is merely grateful that neither of them are crying alone anymore.

They remain there for a few minutes, the only sound Xie Lian’s soft hitched breaths and the humming of the fridge-freezer behind them, their cups of tea forgotten and E-Ming long gone in search of something more interesting.

When Xie Lian finally pulls back, using his fingers to swipe away the tears under his eyes, he smiles at Hua Cheng, feeling a little sheepish at being so teary.

“I’m sorry, I’m just, I’m happy I’m here. I missed you so much.” 

“What happened, gege?” Hua Cheng asks. Xie Lian had tried to explain in the gallery, but he had been so stunned to see him there that Hua Cheng hadn’t taken in any of the rushed words out of his mouth. 

“The day after you left, I dropped my phone at the farm, but I didn’t know I’d done it.” He pauses, wipes at his eyes with his sleeve before he digs into his pocket to pull out his new phone. “I ran it over, San Lang.”

Hua Cheng stares at the newer smartphone, understanding dawning on him. That ridiculous old brick of a phone had survived so many falls even during his short time at the farm that it never would have occurred to him to think there had been a problem with it.

“I had to travel to the closest town to get it fixed, but they said I needed a new one and my SIM wouldn’t fit? And I didn’t even know I could keep the number, I didn’t think until I realised you couldn’t get hold of me.”

Xie Lian puts his phone down onto the countertop, letting his arms wind around Hua Cheng’s waist when he returns to his arms. “I searched online for you, but you’re as impossible to find as I am. I called your agent, but he said he didn’t know who I was and blocked me. I tried from mama’s and popo’s phones too.”

“That was you?” Hua Cheng asks, eyes narrowing as he thinks of that conversation with He Xuan. Why hadn’t it clicked? Why the hell did Hua Cheng not just ask about the person who was contacting He Xuan repeatedly? “I didn’t tell anyone but Yin Yu your name, I told He Xuan your name was Xiao Hua.”

Xie Lian slumps into Hua Cheng’s chest as he groans in understanding. “The name I gave to the farming company. I never thought to give him that.”

“And the letters…”

“San Lang,” Xie Lian interrupts, his fingers twisting in Hua Cheng’s shirt as he leans into his chest. “Your handwriting is atrocious. I couldn’t read them. I tried to send an email to the one you’d included, but I don’t think I read it correctly because it bounced back.”

Hua Cheng’s fingers tangle in Xie Lian hair as he tilts his head back, looking up at the ceiling and cursing himself. Of course his handwriting is horrendous! How did he not think of that? It’s a miracle they even managed to reach the village in the first place!

It is his turn to groan now, as he rests his chin atop Xie Lian’s head and grimaces. “I’m so sorry, gege. I was trying to be romantic.” 

Xie Lian’s giggle is half hysterical, and he only clings harder to Hua Cheng.

“I know. I loved them, I just wished I could read them. I need to give you lessons when we get back.”

Hua Cheng holds back from laughing, if only because he’s aware how badly he really does need some lessons for his handwriting. He will sit through a thousand lessons if he has to, if it means he gets to go back to the farm with Xie Lian.

“I missed you gege.” Hua Cheng admits as he tightens his arms around Xie Lian, pleased that Xie Lian holds him just as tightly.

“Mn. I missed you too, San Lang. Let’s not put ourselves through that again.” Xie Lian leans back, looking up at Hua Cheng expectantly, and who is Hua Cheng to deny him? 

Xie Lian melts beneath him as he leans down to kiss him, lips parting beneath Hua Cheng’s for the slightest tease of his tongue. Hua Cheng smiles into the kiss, feeling so indescribably happy that Xie Lian is here with him, wanting him, asking for him to come back to the farm, that all he wants to do is kiss him and show him how much he’s missed him.

It is easy, too easy, to get lost in each other again after the length of their time apart. Xie Lian’s fingers skim along the waistband of Hua Cheng’s jeans, tugging his shirt out from the waistband and splaying his fingers against the warm skin of his lower back. It makes Hua Cheng groan, and he tilts Xie Lian’s head back and kisses him deeper. The slide of their tongues together is wet and slick, and Xie Lian feels himself being pressed into the kitchen counter with Hua Cheng’s heavy, solid weight.

“San Lang,” he breathes, pulling at the shirt as Hua Cheng pants against his cheek. “Can we…?”

“Fuck, yes.” Hua Cheng trails off, already distracted with Xie Lian’s lips as he pulls him in the direction of the bedroom. One benefit of the sparse apartment is that there is little to knock into, the only sign of their stumbling through being the red silk shirt that Xie Lian manages to pull off Hua Cheng’s shoulders before they make it through the bedroom door.

It is unlike the sex they’d had at the farm, passionate and loving but always gentle, exploring each other’s bodies and relishing every moment of contact between them. Now it is desperate, Hua Cheng arching into the feeling of Xie Lian’s nails scraping down his spine, needing that feeling to know this is real, that they are here together. It is Hua Cheng gripping Xie Lian’s hips hard enough to bruise them as Xie Lian rides him, taking him as deeply as he can as Hua Cheng sucks love-bites into his skin.

It is hotter, rougher, than it has ever been, both of them consumed with the need to be as close as they possibly can be. Xie Lian comes with a cry as Hua Cheng follows him over the edge, and there is no grace to the way they collapse into the bed afterwards, sticky and warm and unwilling to be parted even long enough to clean themselves up.

There’s a certain thrill to it, Xie Lian thinks as he cuddles up into Hua Cheng’s side afterwards. It should feel gross, especially with the deep ache inside of him and the stickiness of the drying lube, but it only makes him feel cherished. He is content, finally back in Hua Cheng’s arms, both of them drowsy and sleepy and all too happy to curl up beneath the sheets and keep each other warm.

He drifts off there in Hua Cheng’s arms, and it feels right, as though the wrongness that has plagued him since Hua Cheng left is finally gone.

They do not wake until the sun has risen, shining through the windows of the bedroom and setting it aglow with a soft yellow light. It streaks over the bed, waking Xie Lian first as it warms his face.

He shifts in Hua Cheng’s arms, hearing the other man mumble sleepily as he rolls onto his back. Xie Lian follows him, turning over and burrowing into his side, slinging an arm over his waist and contentedly resting his chin on Hua Cheng’s chest.

Xie Lian takes a moment to look at him, really look at him. He’s a little slimmer than he was when he left the farm, though he’s not as skinny as he had been when he first arrived. Evidently, he has returned to his routine of microwave meals and cheap coffee, and the lack of hard labour has had an effect on his frame. 

Xie Lian stifles a laugh, finding a certain irony in that - who would have thought that Xie Lian’s cooking would prove to be more nutritious for someone than a pre-made meal! He will have to tell his mama, though he’s certain that his popo will be incredulous.

There are also dark circles under his eyes, though Xie Lian would wager that they will find their match under his own eyes. Still, it makes him feel awful with the knowledge that his inability to contact Hua Cheng will have put them there, and it makes him more than grateful to know that they will never have this misunderstanding again, that Hua Cheng is coming home with him.

Beneath him, Hua Cheng shifts his weight, his eyes flickering open as he yawns, squinting at the sunlight on his face.

“Hey.” Xie Lian whispers, smiling as Hua Cheng looks down at him, sleep-slow and a little groggy. His red eye looks maroon with the sun shining on it, and Xie Lian can only feel elated when the other man does not reach for his eyepatch. 

“You’re really here.” Hua Cheng’s words are breathy, with a touch of wonder to them, and Xie Lian laughs softly as he rubs his calf along Hua Cheng’s.

“Did you think you were dreaming?”

“It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d dreamt you coming to find me.” His cheeks are pink as he confesses it, but it breaks Xie Lian’s heart a little to hear it. 

“I did too. Ah, dreamt that you’d come back to see me, that is.”

Hua Cheng says nothing, only offers him a gentle smile before he rolls onto his side, facing Xie Lian and kissing him sweetly, syrupy slow and full of so much love and contentment. They trade lazy kisses in the morning sunlight, laid across from each other, legs tangled, their lips brushing in unhurried kisses. 

“You look like you’re thinking hard.” Xie Lian says with a smile, letting the pad of his thumb tug down at Hua Cheng’s lower lip before he replaces it with a kiss.

“Mn, there’s something I need to tell you. I wanted to say it at the farm, but it didn’t seem the right time.” 

Xie Lian pauses, the hand in Hua Cheng’s hair curling the strands between his fingers as he watches Hua Cheng carefully, his heart hammering in his chest.

He knows what Hua Cheng is going to say. He wants to hear it, needs to hear it, already so sickeningly in love. But he also wants to be the first to say it, and he feels his breathing speed up as Hua Cheng holds his face in his hands and tenderly presses a gentle kiss to his mouth.

“I love you.”

Xie Lian gasps beneath him, his body pressing up into him, and Hua Cheng kisses him, quick featherlight kisses with enough feeling behind them that Xie Lian feels dizzy.

“I love you.” Hua Cheng confesses between those soft kisses, his mouth lingering against Xie Lian’s, their noses still pressed against each other’s cheeks. “I love you, Xie Lian.”

Hearing those words fill him with such joy that he feels his eyes fill up with tears. He has wanted to hear them for so long, wanted to say them in return and be able to bask in the warmth of their love. He had known he loved Hua Cheng, and he had known Hua Cheng loved him in return. Would Hua Cheng have found it easier, been more able to understand that something had gone wrong, if he had been assured of Xie Lian’s love before he left? 

After all, knowing it is one thing, but to hear it makes him so happy that he could burst into giggles right there beneath Hua Cheng’s fluttery kisses.

“I love you too.” Breathless, grinning like a fool, Xie Lian shifts closer, his fingers digging into Hua Cheng’s bare buttock as he pulls their bodies tighter, returning the sweet kisses and holding onto Hua Cheng as though he is his lifeline. 

The sheets are warm and thin, easily tossed over their bodies as Xie Lian tries to straddle Hua Cheng, only to fall to the side as he tries to kiss him too fervently. They tumble across the bed, laughing like the fools in love that they are, until Hua Cheng’s weight presses Xie Lian into the mattress, and their bodies align just right and they’re gasping and moaning once more.

Hua Cheng’s hands wander, rough palms skimming over smooth skin. Xie Lian is still soft and pliant from their lovemaking the previous night, but Hua Cheng still works him open diligently on his fingers and his cock, drawing out his gasps and swallowing each one with a kiss.

“I love you.” Hua Cheng murmurs into the column of his throat as he grips Xie Lian’s thighs, thrusting into him deeply. He says and hears it so many times that he loses count, caught between Xie Lian’s breathy sighs and pleading moans. He whispers it like a prayer as Xie Lian’s body tightens around his, shaking with the strength of his orgasm, hears it breathed against the shell of his ear like a blessing as Xie Lian holds him through his own.

Hua Cheng has no idea how long they lie there afterwards, tangled together as they doze, only that he wakes to the feeling of fingertips tracing patterns across his chest. 

“Gege,” he moans, rolling over and letting out a huff of laughter as those fingertips try to tickle his stomach. Xie Lian giggles behind him, and Hua Cheng feels the warmth of him as he presses up against his back and tucks his chin over Hua Cheng’s shoulder.

“I missed this.” Xie Lian’s voice is quiet, serious despite the soft atmosphere between them. 

“So did I.” He says, as though it had not been obvious in the way they’d clung to each other. Hua Cheng had missed this more than he can even put into words, Xie Lian’s absence an aching, gaping maw in his chest. For him to be here now, sharing his bed, it only solidifies how certain he is that he does not want them to be torn apart again.

Abruptly, Hua Cheng turns in Xie Lian’s arms, coming nose to nose with him and inhaling deeply when Xie Lian presses a kiss to the tip of his nose with his cheeks still pink from their earlier activities. Shakily, he lifts his hand between them, fingers brushing against Xie Lian’s collarbone as he tugs at the silver chain around Xie Lian’s neck.

Hua Cheng removes the ring from its chain, avoiding Xie Lian’s gaze as he reaches behind him and puts the chain on the bedside table and keeps the ring in his hand. Xie Lian watches his every movement, holding his breath as Hua Cheng finds the words to speak.

“I wanted to do something special, plan something that would be a surprise for you. Maybe something that would have been a surprise after weeks away from the farm.” His fingers fiddle with the ring, and when he finally looks back up to catch Xie Lian’s gaze, he looks vulnerable, as though he is baring his very soul. “But I don’t want to be separated from gege for even that long. I never want to be parted from you like that again.”

“San Lang…” Xie Lian’s words come out in a shaky exhale, and he swallows thickly as Hua Cheng takes his hand and presses a kiss to his knuckles. “Are you asking me to…”

“Yes.” Hua Cheng is quick to answer as he trails off, hating the thought of an awkward silence if Xie Lian is taken by too much of a surprise. “Marry me, gege.”

Xie Lian stares at him for one terrifying, silent heartbeat, his eyes wide as Hua Cheng lets the ring graze around his ring finger.

The space between them is already minimal, but Xie Lian almost launches himself across it, his body tumbling into Hua Cheng’s as he urgently aims for another kiss.

They collide so sharply that their teeth clack painfully, but neither of them giggle, barely able to breathe as the ring slides down on Xie Lian’s finger, and then his hand is in Hua Cheng’s hair, holding him close and tight as he kisses him deeply.

When they part, Xie Lian’s lashes are wet and there’s tears on Hua Cheng’s cheeks, and Xie Lian wipes them away with a watery smile.

“Of course I’ll marry you, San Lang.”

He presses a soft kiss to Hua Cheng’s lips, and it tastes salty and wet from their tears, but he’s so incomprehensibly happy that he barely notices it. The weight of the ring on his finger feels right, and he can’t deny that he hasn’t occasionally allowed himself to imagine taking it off the chain and wearing it as a ring.

Hua Cheng’s arms wind around his waist, keeping him close as Xie Lian settles into his side. He lets his hand rest on Hua Cheng’s chest, admiring the glint of the ruby in the ring.

“Does gege like the ring?” Hua Cheng asks, noticing how Xie Lian’s gaze is fixed on it when he presses his lips to Xie Lian’s temple.

“It’s perfect.” And he means it. It fits perfectly, and he loves that it is Hua Cheng’s, an heirloom that belongs to him and came from his mother rather than a fancier ring bought from a jewellery store. He knows the importance of this ring to Hua Cheng, and it’s an honour to wear it. 

“You’re perfect.” Xie Lian adds after a moment, only to laugh when Hua Cheng groans and hides his face in Xie Lian’s hair.

They remain in the bed until the morning bleeds into the early afternoon, enjoying the closeness of being together and happy, until soon enough their lack of food makes itself known, and Hua Cheng cannot refrain from laughing at how red Xie Lian’s cheeks become in mortification at his stomach rumbling.

“Come on, gege. We should shower, and then I’ll make us some breakfast.”

Xie Lian smiles, admiring the view of Hua Cheng’s body as he slips out from under the sheets. He should feel scandalous, ogling Hua Cheng’s body in such a way, but he grins as he reminds himself that Hua Cheng is now his fiancé. What’s there is his to admire, and there’s no harm in looking.

He wonders when they’ll get married - there isn’t an office at Puqi Village where they could register, and the nearest one might very well be a few hours drive from the farm. It seems a shame to wait, even though that likely is the more logical option given they’ve only known each other for little more than half a year.

It’s a shame, to wait, when the Xianle marriage registration office is right here. When he has all the documents he needs, since he brought them in case anything went wrong.

It’s crazy, but he thinks they’ve waited long enough.

“I brought my registration book and my ID card. You’re registered in Xianle, right? San Lang, we could-“ Xie Lian leans across and takes his hand, pulling him back down onto the bed so that Hua Cheng’s weight settles atop him. “Let’s do it now.”

For a moment, Hua Cheng stares down at Xie Lian, uncertain if he dreamed those words. Then, a little breathless as he realises what Xie Lian means, he laughs. “Gege, popo will kill us.”

Xie Lian can’t help but join in with him, leaning up to kiss him between breaths of laughter. Chen Hui certainly will have something to say if they return to the village already married, and he won’t deny his family their right to host a wedding ceremony if they wish, but he doesn’t want to pass up the chance to be officially married whilst they’re here.

“I know, but our village doesn’t have an office where we could register, and the one in the closest town takes a while. We can always have a ceremony later in the village, but we can get our marriage books in a week or so if we applied here.” He says the last part conspiratorially, his smile knowing until Hua Cheng kisses it away, both of them giddy and excited at the thought.

“Yeah.” Hua Cheng sounds awestruck as he looks down at Xie Lian with adoration clear on his features, and Xie Lian can’t resist stealing another kiss. “Let’s do it.” 

Perhaps it is foolish, and perhaps it is hasty, but Hua Cheng has never been more certain of anything than he is his love for Xie Lian, and if Xie Lian wants to get married now then he will make it as easy as he possibly can.

There are forms that need to be filled out, proof of marriage-status that needs to be obtained, and Hua Cheng has Yin Yu busy all day trying to get appointments for all the forms and relevant searches to be made. As he cooks breakfast, Xie Lian points out that perhaps Yin Yu should get a raise given how diligently he is working on this for Hua Cheng. 

Grudgingly, Hua Cheng admits that the man deserves it when he receives a text telling him an appointment has been made for them at the end of the following week.

Two weeks later, with matching wedding rings and their marriage books obtained, they begin the long road trip back to the farm.

Hua Cheng is the one driving, too pleased with his purchase of a new truck and not wanting Xie Lian to have to take the first round of driving, though Xie Lian is insistent they swap the next morning after they’ve stayed at a hotel overnight. Hua Cheng might be content to drive Xie Lian everywhere, but he doesn’t think it’s fair for him to actually do so.

And besides, he kind of wants to try out the new truck as well.

It’s a second hand one, though Xie Lian could not get Hua Cheng to budge on his refusal to look for a model over three years old. Hua Cheng’s argument had been that Xie Lian’s old truck is likely not far off becoming unsafe to drive, and a newer model will last longer. Xie Lian had felt bad, wanting an older model so that Hua Cheng wouldn’t be spending too much money on it, but his husband had merely pointed out that since he would need to be driving now that he would be moving to the farm, it would only be right for him to spend what he wanted on a new truck.

Xie Lian does have to admit it is a very nice truck. It is made for off-road driving, and it is so smooth that he can barely believe he is in a truck at all. The bed of it is much bigger than his current one - and Hua Cheng hadn’t been able to resist pointing out that it would make their outside activities much more comfortable, much to Xie Lian’s mortification in the salesroom - and the seats are much more spacious, though it lacks the single bench. He kind of misses the closeness of being pressed against each other, but at least with the armrest between them he can let his hand tangle in Hua Cheng’s as he drives.

It came with a free truck-bed cover too, which is a huge bonus seeing as most of Hua Cheng’s possessions are currently stuffed into the truck-bed. E-Ming has graciously been given the backseat, though she had grumbled and complained when Hua Cheng had clipped her into a cat harness attached to the seatbelt.

With the new truck and their marriage books in hand, Hua Cheng had put his apartment up for sale (at a price that nearly made Xie Lian fall out of the bed) and they had packed up what they could, ready for the long drive back home.

It feels almost unreal. To think that three weeks ago he had been terrified, worried that Hua Cheng would not want to see him again, and yet here he is ready to return to his farm with Hua Cheng as his husband. He holds their marriage books in his hand, his fingertips smoothing over the red cover and occasionally opening them up to look inside. Both are identical, the inside pages salmon-pink, and the photograph of them in both books is one he wants to treasure.  Even though their expressions are calm, it’s clear to see the joy in their eyes, in Xie Lian’s gentle smile and the slight smirk to Hua Cheng’s lips.

Xie Lian grins as he looks down at it, only to feel his cheeks heat up when he hears Hua Cheng clear his throat from the driver’s seat.

“If gege likes looking at me so much, I’m right here.” There’s a knowing lilt to his voice that only makes Xie Lian blush harder, but he cannot complain when his cheeks hurt so much from smiling.

“I’m sorry, does my new husband feel neglected?” Xie Lian asks, grinning when he sees how Hua Cheng looks incredibly pleased when he hears himself referred to as husband. 

“En.” Hua Cheng glances over, sighing heavily into the space between them. “Newly married, yet my husband ignores me.”

“San Lang!” Xie Lian reaches over to grab Hua Cheng’s hand where it rests on the armrest. “I would never.”

Hua Cheng grins, momentarily distracted as Xie Lian presses a kiss to his knuckles, before he returns his attention to the road.

“Gege needs to make it up to me.”

“Or maybe I’ve spoiled San Lang too much.” Xie Lian fires back, bursting into laughter when the sad expression returns to Hua Cheng’s face. He holds onto his hand tightly, and smiles when he realises Hua Cheng is habitually rubbing his thumb over the rings on Xie Lian’s finger.

Oh, how he loves his husband.

It takes a little over a week to return home to the farm, as they divert themselves en-route to places they’d like to explore. They stop at known nature and hiking spots on the way, and capture a beautiful photo of themselves beneath the last of the red maples at Mount Taicang, their clasped hands with their new wedding rings visible and huge, silly grins on their faces.

Xie Lian sends it to his mother, along with a message to let her know they’ll be back in two days. 

Predictably, when his phone blows up with multiple messages from his mother and his grandmother, Xie Lian can only laugh and grin at Hua Cheng conspiratorially.

“Oh, we’re going to get an earful when we get back.”

Hua Cheng grins.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Summer

“You're sure you’re going to be alright on your own?”

Xie Wan walks her son to where he’s parked the truck on the edge of the village, Ruoye at their heels and E-Ming not far behind her. She holds a bowl of leftovers for him, which he finds sweet, and which he appreciates knowing he won’t have to cook the next evening.

His free time had increased so much when Hua Cheng moved back to the farm, and now with him gone Xie Lian is so overwhelmed with the farm work that cooking alone on an evening has become a chore he can barely stand without his husband to try his concoctions. When he had called his mother earlier that evening to ask if he could visit for dinner, he had been staring inside the fridge for ten minutes as though staring long enough would prompt the tofu to crawl out and cook itself.

Xie Wan had agreed happily, cheerily even, though she had promptly began to fuss over Xie Lian, as though without Hua Cheng there he would be apt to spend his days doing nothing more than moping around the farmhouse.

(The fact that he has spent the last week moping around the farm is something he’ll not admit to his mother, lest she decide to stay with him for the rest of the time Hua Cheng is away. He loves her, but he doesn’t want her to feel like she should help him with the farm.)

“I’ll be fine mama, but thank you.”

She hugs him, handing over the bowl of cold noodles as he lets Ruoye and E-Ming jump into the backseat.

“I hope tomorrow you feel better.” She says, too knowingly, and Xie Lian blushes as he climbs into the truck. Is he that obvious? It’s been over a year since he first met Hua Cheng, and they’ve been married for eight months now, perhaps it is normal for him to miss his husband this much in the first year of their marriage? His mother certainly doesn’t seem surprised by his behaviour.

“Bye mama.” He waves out the window as he starts the truck, thinking fondly of his husband as he heads back to the farm. Hua Cheng had been right about his popo wanting to kill them when they arrived back at the end of autumn: Chen Hui had only been mollified by the knowledge that they had no formal ceremony or celebration, and that she was free to arrange one for them, which she had done, promptly.

It had been winter, and it had been cold, but Xie Lian had been warmed by the sight of them both in traditional red wedding suits, and if the farmhouse had been chilly well, they’d been more than happy to keep each other warm through the night. 

Hua Cheng had sold his apartment not long after they’d arrived back for what Xie Lian considered an eye-watering amount, but which Hua Cheng had insisted was below its true value for the purpose of a quick sale.

They’d built a second, smaller barn for Hua Cheng to use as his workshop with a small portion of the funds, attached to the main barn at the bottom of the farm. It is filled with all the artworks that he’d managed to keep hidden away in his studio, and to Xie Lian’s surprise it had included the painting of Xie Lian that Hua Cheng had been working on when he was at the farm.

Xie Lian had insisted Hua Cheng paint himself into it too, which he had done, painting himself laying on the bench with his head in Xie Lian’s lap. Xie Lian loves it, and he’d hung it up in their bedroom, if only because hanging it in the living room would mean his mother would catch a glimpse of it, and he would die if she did. She may be his mother, but that painting is for him and Hua Cheng alone.

Within days of returning to the farm, it had been as though Hua Cheng had never left, as though he had always been there beside Xie Lian. They had fallen easily back into their old routine, with the only change being the commissions that Hua Cheng occasionally takes on. Even then, he sends everything digitally, and it is only now that he has taken his first trip back to Xianle for a statue installation that he needed to be present for.

E-Ming has adjusted to the change easily too - the freedom to roam the farm after being in the apartment is a welcome change for the former feral kitten, though most days the lazy cat is found either curled up on Ruoye’s back, or laid across it with her legs dangling down as Ruoye wanders the farm.

Xie Lian smiles as he sees them now, Ruoye curled up on the backseat with E-Ming batting at her tail, the black cat falling onto the floor when Ruoye wags it and sends her flying.

“Are you both being good girls?” He asks as he pulls up to the farm, smiling when both animals jump out of the truck and head straight towards the doors to the farmhouse. He follows at a slower pace, checking the egg-box and putting away some baskets before he enters the courtyard and comes to a sudden halt.

Usually, Ruoye and E-Ming wait outside, but today they’re nowhere to be seen, and Xie Lian realises with a frown that he must have left the door open.

Sighing, he walks through the door, blindly reaching for the light switch, only to screech in surprise when a strong pair of arms wind around his waist and pull him close.

Any panic he may have felt quickly dissipates when he recognises the feel and smell of his husband, Hua Cheng’s familiar cologne and the warmth of his lips as he presses a smattering of kisses to Xie Lian’s face. Xie Lian cannot help but break into giggles, his hands curling against Hua Cheng’s chest as his husband buries his face in Xie Lian’s neck and holds him tightly.

“San Lang! You’re supposed to be in Xianle!” Xie Lian says with a grin, looping his arms around Hua Cheng’s neck and swaying a little as his husband holds him.

“I missed my husband too much to stay a minute longer than I needed to.” Hua Cheng grins as he responds, pressing a quick kiss to Xie Lian’s lips. “Why, was gege enjoying the peace and quiet?”

Xie Lian laughs, cupping Hua Cheng’s jaw with his hand before he pulls him down into a better, deeper kiss. Hua Cheng’s arms tighten around him as his lips part beneath Xie Lian’s, holding him so tightly that Xie Lian is lifted off the floor as they kiss.

“Never.” Xie Lian whispers between kisses, smiling against his lips. “I always want my husband here with me.”

Hua Cheng nuzzles his nose against Xie Lian’s, grinning before he steals another kiss from his husband. 

“I always want to be with my husband, so I understand gege perfectly.” Hua Cheng loosens his hold on him, letting Xie Lian’s feet touch the ground again. Xie Lian lets one hand fall between them, entwining his fingers with Hua Cheng’s as he leans into him.

His husband smiles warmly at him, and it is the best feeling in the entire world. Xie Lian kisses him again, and again, until they become as easily lost in each other as they always are. Who would have ever thought, that day Hua Cheng set off from Xianle to work on a farm, that he would fall in love so deeply? He is home, a place he never thought he would ever have, with the love of his life welcoming him back with pure happiness at his return.

Xie Lian holds his husband’s face gently in his hands, kissing him deeply, and Hua Cheng feels complete when Xie Lian kisses his earlobe and whispers in his ear.

“Welcome home, San Lang.”

Xie Lian wonders if they’ll always be this lovesick. He knows for certain that they always will be. There is nothing greater in his world than the feeling of Hua Cheng’s arms around him, the smell of his husband and the warmth of his body against his own, swaying together in the entrance to the farmhouse that is theirs.