The Heart of a Smith

Chapter 35: Two Years

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Two years later, at the International Airport.

Li Sui strode out of the airport, his eyes locked onto a black limousine by the roadside, he smiled lightly and walked over leisurely.

“Lu Shang.” As soon as Li Sui pulled the car door open and saw the man whom he thought of day and night, he just couldn’t wait to pull him into an embrace.

“Are you hungry?” Lu Shang smiled as he felt up Li Sui’s shoulders, “It seems like you’ve grown more muscles.”

“I’m not hungry, I just had food on the plane.” Li Sui let go of him, tilting his head to the front seat and said hello to the person there, “Uncle Yuen.”

Uncle Yuen nodded in return and asked, “Are we going home now?”

“Let’s go home,” Li Sui said while holding Lu Shang’s hand, staring at him attentively, as if he had to get the missed shares of not being able to see Lu Shang for the past few months back at once.

Lu Shang was still as gentle and elegant as ever. Even a simple windbreaker jacket looked classy when Lu Shang was the one wearing it. His usual furrowed eyebrows seemed to have loosened up a lot. A pair of thin-rimmed glasses sat on Lu Shang’s tall nose, giving him a more bookish look.

“Why are you wearing glasses?” Li Sui laughed.

“A friend gave it to me for protection against UV rays.” Lu Shang pushed the glasses on his nose, “Does it look good on me?”

Li Sui couldn’t move his eyes away, “It suits you very well.” It wasn’t the glasses that looked good, but the person wearing them. Every time Li Sui looked at him, he felt a little more drawn to it. If Uncle Yuen weren’t in the front, he would have jumped to kiss Lu Shang already.

The air-conditioner in the car was running at its maximum, Li Sui was blown by the hot wind and got really sweaty, so he just took his coat off, “Why did you come in person? Next time I’ll take a taxi, it’s going to turn cold again, so don’t go out.”

Lu Shang laughed at him, “There is still a next time?”

Only then did Li Sui remember that all his classes at the school were over, and he had all received his degree certificate. He should have been back earlier three months ago, but he just happened to get a rare internship opportunity, so he stayed there for a while longer, and even made a deal with the company on an Export Trading Project.

“I forgot about that…” Li Sui laughed.

When Uncle Yuen saw them talking and laughing on the rear-view mirror, he couldn’t help thinking about the thing that happened when Lu Shang was going out, he still had doubts about that.

In the afternoon, Lu Shang planned on driving to pick Li Sui up from the airport. As soon as the car drove out of the yard, the sound of a sudden brake came from outside the door. Uncle Yuen rushed out to see that the car engine was already off, and Lu Shang seemed to be a little frightened—his hands were clenched tightly on the steering wheel, and his eyes had no focus.

“What happened?”, Uncle Yuen immediately asked, as the vehicle had clearly veered off course, almost hitting on a tree.

Lu Shang steadied his breathing, when he raised his head up again, the clarity and focus in his eyes were back, “I forgot my glasses.”

Uncle Yuen brought Lu Shang’s glasses out from the house for him, he saw that Lu Shang still seemed out of it. The condition he was in didn’t favor driving, so Uncle Yuen proposed to drive him to the airport instead. Originally, he thought Lu Shang would refuse, but to his surprise, Lu Shang actually agreed and sat in the backseat.

Li Sui answered a phone call in the car, he spoke fluent English and seemed to be bargaining with the person on the other end of the call. Li Sui’s businessman traits were clearly shown from his temperament. When he finished the call, Lu Shang asked, “A border project?”

“Yes, it’s a US-Sino cooperation project,” Li Sui said; when it came to professional matters, his tone sounded a lot more serious. “Establishing a tight network of commercial transport points at different ports, then using point-to-point intermodulation to greatly improve transport speed, saving time and resources.”

Lu Shang was listening with quite a lot of interest, “Not bad, tell me more when we get home.”

Uncle Yuen saw them off up to the door, then turned around to leave, saying that he needed to refuel the car. Li Sui led Lu Shang out of the car, and as soon as they stepped foot inside the house, Li Sui pressed Lu Shang against the door for an intimate kiss.

After being apart for more than three months, both of them were excited to see each other, simply exchanging saliva was nowhere near enough, they almost started doing it at the doorway. Li Sui forced the brakes quickly, instead of continuing at the doorway, he carried Lu Shang upstairs and the two of them had lots of fun in the bedroom, coming out only when the sky had turned dark.

Li Sui might have tormented Lu Shang a little too much; he watched as Lu Shang fell into a deep sleep in his arms, unable to stop the rising sense of guilt. Li Sui had always shown restraint in their sexual affairs. Only when Lu Shang was in great health would he try to bring his desires to life, but this time they were separated for too long. He couldn’t stop himself from coming onto him a little too strongly. By the end, Lu Shang’s physical strength was obviously failing to keep up with him. Not only did Lu Shang said nothing about that, he even teased Li Sui with his words, making Li Sui more fired up. After releasing their desires, Lu Shang lay in Li Sui’s arms and fell asleep, naked. Li Sui bowed his head to kiss Lu Shang on the forehead, then massaged Lu Shang’s waist while staring at the way Lu Shang was sleeping.

Over the past two years, the two of them were apart more than they were together. Although they did that for studies and career respectively, Li Sui still found that regrettable. Now that he could finally be with him, he really hoped that time would pass slower.

At nine in the evening, Li Sui knew that if Lu Shang kept on sleeping, he would miss dinner, so he woke him up gently. Aunt Lu had already warmed up their meal, she was now sorting out the dirty clothes from Li Sui’s luggage for cleaning.

After going abroad for his studies, Li Sui had missed Aunt Lu’s home cooked meals a lot. He had three huge bowls of rice, followed by drinking two bowls of soup, and he was so satisfied that it almost brought him to tears.

Lu Shang watched as Li Sui stuffed his face with food, he was amused and worried at the same time, “Did you not eat anything over there?”

Li Sui shook his head and said, “You weren’t there, so the food did not taste as good.”

“There’s pear water too, do you want me to get you some?” Lu Shang asked.

Li Sui’s eyes glowed the second he heard Lu Shang’s words, he looked like a huge Shepherd dog who found a bone to chew on. Lu Shang gave a light smile and picked up an empty bowl to get the soup from the kitchen.

Just when Li Sui finished the food in his bowl, Li Sui heard the sound of a porcelain bowl breaking, the sound came from the kitchen. Li Sui immediately got up and went to the kitchen, “What’s wrong?”

On the kitchen floor, there was a pile of porcelain shards. Lu Shang stood behind the pile, looking rather innocent, and he said, “It was too hot, I didn’t hold it steady enough.”

“Did you get hurt?” Li Sui immediately checked Lu Shang’s hand and saw redness around his fingertips, he pulled Lu Shang’s hand to the tap, washing it under cold water. Aunt Lu heard the noise and came in as well, she saw the broken bowl on the ground and turned to get the broom.

Luckily, the pear water wasn’t too hot as it was cooked a lot earlier, so Lu Shang’s hand wasn’t seriously scalded. Li Sui saw Lu Shang blinking his eyes a few times, his eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head, he seemed to be really tired. Li Sui’s heart sank, “Did you stay up late last night again?”

“No,” Lu Shang said, then he looked up at Li Sui solemnly, “I went to bed at ten o’clock.”

“Really?”, Li Sui obviously did not believe him. He turned around to ask, “Aunt Lu, when did he sleep last night?”

Aunt Lu laughed, “I think Lu Lao Ban went to bed at three last night.”

Lu Shang, “…”

Over the past two years, Li Sui had been very strict with him. Lu Shang must not skip meals, and should have three meals a day on time, he should go to bed at or before 11pm, guaranteeing eight hours of sleep every day. When Li Sui was home, Lu Shang usually kept his promise, but when Li Sui wasn’t home, he could only remind Lu Shang through the phone or ask Aunt Lu to help persuade him. Lu Shang was generally obedient, and he hadn’t been seriously ill in the past two years. However, when Lu Shang must choose between work and rest, he would not hesitate to choose the former. Li Sui wasn’t happy with that, but he couldn’t do anything about it, either.

Lu Shang stopped talking. Li Sui looked at Lu Shang’s slightly pale face and he felt his heart softening instantly. This way, it was as if Aunt Lu and him had joined forces to bully Lu Shang. Li Sui walked forward and held onto his hand, with a soft voice, he said, “Okay, you are tired too, right? Shall we go upstairs to sleep?”

Lu Shang nodded and allowed Li Sui to lead him upstairs.

The next morning, Lu Shang and Li Sui arrived at the company together; it was truly a refreshing sight, having two handsome guys coming in for work together. They attracted a lot of discussion, but Lu Shang didn’t give them the chance to guess. He announced at the morning meeting straight away that Li Sui would be appointed as the Assistant General Manager. Then, he quickly finished the admission procedure on the same day.

At noon, Li Sui packed up his things and went to find Lu Shang at the office next-door. Lu Shang was still busy writing something, Li Sui knew that he would not stop any time soon. So, he went downstairs to buy takeout and brought it up for Lu Shang.

“Have something to eat first, you can continue writing later.” Li Sui transferred the food to a bowl, then asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I am writing a to-do-list for the hand-over of the Golden Sands Shores Project,” Lu Shang said. Leaning back on his swivel chair, he looked at Li Sui with a rather amused look, his eyes were smiling as he said, “Are you afraid?”

Li Sui raised his eyebrows.

“You must have heard the rumors, anyone connected to this project would be met with a horrible death.” Lu continued, “I’m going to hand this project over to you now. Are you scared?”

“A horrible death?” Li Sui repeated, then asked, “Weren’t you overseeing the project before too?”

Lu Shang nodded. Li Sui smiled and handed the bowl of food to Lu Shang, “If I could die a horrible death together with you, that’d be great.”

Li Sui agreed to the task pretty quickly, only realizing after he had agreed, Lu Shang was going to make him leave home again. At night, Li Sui finished packing his bags, he sat on the side of the bed as he gave a long sigh.

“There is still room for debate now,” Lu Shang said while leaning on the bed headboard, he was reading a book. He Li Sui’s sulky expression a little amusing.

Li Sui stared back at him for a while, taking his book away, then pulling his glasses off and jumping the man, “Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Doing what on purpose?” Lu Shang laughed.

“Sending me away on purpose.” Li Sui kissed him on the neck.

Lu Shang stopped smiling, “Hmn… Yes.”

Li Sui moved back a little and looked straight into him from above, Lu Shang laughed and said, “I’m afraid I’d die of sexual exhaustion if you don’t go away (i).”

T/N: (i) What Lu Shang said in raws was actually a common four characters idiom that means die of exhaustion, 精盡人亡. The joke is that 精 means spirits or strength originally in the idiom, but it also happens to mean sperm, making the idiom sounds like die from using all the sperms up. (精 means spirits or strength, 盡 means use up, 人 means the person, 亡 means to die.)

Flames lit up in Li Sui’s eyes, he leaned down to kiss him, “Let’s try that.”

After two consecutive nights of excessive indulgence in sex, Lu Shang was obviously tired, so much so that he had to take his bath with Li Sui’s help. Before going to bed, Li Sui thought, he had been running around for the past two years. Now that he was finally home, he had to leave again, as if they were swallow and goose (ii). He felt a little sorry and could not help falling asleep for half a day.

T/N: (ii) Another idiom: 社燕秋鴻, it’s used to describe people who are separated right after they meet each other, the words are basically referring to the swallow and the goose. Swallows and geese are migratory birds, but they migrate to an opposite direction.

“Lu Shang, whatever you ask of me, I will accomplish it whether it’s climbing up a mountain of spears or jumping into a sea of fire.” Moving to Lu Shang’s ear, Li Sui continued, “But please, don’t hide anything from me.”

Li Sui wasn’t even sure if Lu Shang heard that or not, as he just vaguely mumbled, “Hmm.”

The next day at noon, Lu Shang was going to take Li Sui to the airport, but Li Sui objected, “Go take a nap. Wait for me to go fishing with you when I return.”

Since Li Sui mentioned fishing, Lu Shang remembered, “There is a special kind of fishing bait sold in the fishing village near the golden sand coast. It’s very useful in fishing for turtles. Can you buy some back for me?”

“Why do you need to fish for turtles?” Li Sui put his shoes on, then pointed to himself, “Didn’t you caught one already?”

Lu Shang smiled a little, “It mutated during growth, I can’t control it anymore.”

Sometimes Lu Shang wondered himself too, Li Sui was such a timid and careful little turtle when he picked him up, how did he grow into the huge Shepherd dog he was now. Li Sui was also very sensitive and smart, he could sense the slightest movements in the grasses. If Lu Shang wanted to do stuff behind his back, he really had to put a lot of effort into it.

Li Sui lifted his luggage up to the door, looking back at the people inside, he felt melancholic. Lu Shang pushed the strong feeling of reluctance back, deliberately moving his face away to not look at Li Sui. Even if Lu Shang tried delaying it, Li Sui still had to go, Lu Shang was afraid that he’d give in if he looked at Li Sui.

Even with his changed shoes, Li Sui walked back in suddenly like a gust of wind, placing his hand on the back of Lu Shang’s head and giving him a deep French kiss. Then just like the wind, he left the house, getting in the car and drove away.

The room was in complete silence. Lu Shang’s shoulders seemed to have relaxed a bit as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

As soon as Li Sui got off the plane, he received a phone call from abroad.

“I’m sorry, sir. We have compared the data of all registered donors in our database to your registered information in our donation center. We regret to inform you that there are no matching heart donors for you at the moment. We will expand the scope of our search. If we find any donors who meet the requirements, we will inform you immediately.”

Li Sui’s eyes darkened, “Thank you.”

“It’s our pleasure to help.”

A beeping sound came from the phone. Li Sui looked down at all the people coming and going in the airport, his shoulders slouched lifelessly.