Chapter 22: “Hello Handsome, Willing to be My Groom?”
After drinking, Shen Guanchao waited a while to sober up. He showered upstairs before rushing out, unwilling to meet the person he liked reeking of alcohol. He changed into a new camel-colored coat and wrapped a skin-brightening wine-red scarf around his neck, looking extremely warm with his long hair draped over his back.
At the entrance of the villa area, a familiar black sedan was parked by the curb.
Xie Jingchu leaned against the door. On such a warm and fuzzy day, he was dressed in cold austerity, his expression indifferent, his light-colored eyes gazing faintly at the fallen leaves beneath his feet.
Hearing the sound of Shen Guanchao approaching, he turned around. The coldness all over his body faded in an instant, and he called out gently, “Gege.”
Shen Guanchao smiled. “Why are you dressed all in black? You didn’t even dress a bit more festively to see Gege.”
As he spoke, he took off his wine-red scarf and wrapped it around Xie Jingchu.
“Is it warm?”
Xie Jingchu’s voice was hoarse. “Warm…”
The scarf retained its owner’s lingering warmth and a pleasant scentâunknown which brand of body wash it was.
Xie Jingchu stood there with ears turning red, suddenly nervous. “Let’s go…”
He drove Shen Guanchao to an ancient town in a neighboring city.
On the way, they passed North Street Park, where they first met.
It was still lush with greenery here; everything grew freely. Fields of flowers bloomed vigorously even in winter. People gathered on the Bicheng Bridge to release lanterns, the specks of light converging into a sea of brightness.
Looking at the beautiful scenery outside the window, Shen Guanchao suddenly remembered that he had once teased a runaway kid here.
That day, he was supposed to go shoot an endorsement. Passing by North Street, he remembered there was a very delicious bun shop here and decided to get off on a whim to buy some. While crossing the street, he saw a pitiful little boy squatting by the roadside, covered in bruises on his face and hands, his eyes full of stubbornness, yet looking like he was about to cry.
As he walked, he couldn’t help but look back several times. In the end, he couldn’t move his feet. He went up and patted the poor kid’s head. He looked fourteen or fifteen, yet somehow he was covered in scars.
So, with overflowing sympathy, he bought food and medicine for the kid, told him to go home early, and then hurriedly left with his manager.
Because he didn’t get to eat the wheat buns he had been craving, Shen Guanchao remembered this incident particularly well.
He wondered how that boy was doing now, and if he had run away from home again later.
After zoning out for a while, he retracted his thoughts and looked at the person in the driver’s seat. He felt that there was something familiar about him, but he didn’t have time to think too much about it.
The ancient town they were going to wasn’t far; it was a fifty-minute drive. It was a Republic-era town, and a large cluster of arcade buildings appeared before their eyes, the heavy breath of history rushing toward them.
Shen Guanchao’s favorite subject in school was history. Besides game posters, his room was filled with countless history books.
“You sing and I take the stage.” He loved watching great figures drift in the river of history. Their magnificent lives replayed in his mind across thousands of yearsâthe charm of rationality and sensibility, dreams and reality colliding.
Xie Jingchu knew about his hobby and had specially chosen this place.
They walked into this old city, walking through mottled old times together, shuttling through buildings flavored with the old era.
The roadside stalls were bustling, crying out their wares. Shen Guanchao linked arms with Xie Jingchu, bought a bouquet of flowers from an old lady’s stall, and stuffed it into his palm.
It was eustoma, representing eternal, unchanging love.
Ever since Mu Xinyue started dating that flower-buying handsome guy, he would instill flower knowledge and language into Xie Jingchu every few days, so he knew what this meant. His breathing almost stopped.
Before he could calm down, Shen Guanchao pulled him toward a century-old Christian church on the other side. Holy light shone through the enamel of the church, blessing every soul. Every color on the stained-glass windows told of their emotions. Masterpieces into which artists poured their hearts intertwined the sacred and the beautiful of the world.
In such a solemn and spiritual building, Shen Guanchao jokingly took Xie Jingchu’s hand, tilted his head back, and like in all Western TV dramas, blinked and asked, “Hello handsome, willing to be my groom?”
It instantly slowed the heart rate, and uncontrollable emotions surged.
Xie Jingchu knew this was just a joke on a whim, but he still nodded seriously and held the man’s hand back.
“I am willing. Let’s go.”
Leaving the church, they bought two servings of sweet soup nearby and sat shoulder to shoulder on a boat heading toward Chizi Square.
The boatman’s smile was kind. The breeze blew, creating ripples on the river surface like disturbed light gauze, carrying a lively beauty.
In the past, Xie Jingchu wouldn’t have had any interest in these places because his world had always been cool-toned.
But on this lively New Year’s Eve, he seemed to come alive again.
Walking alone in the world for so long, finally, someone was taking him to readapt to the joy belonging to festivals.
At 11:37 PM Beijing time, they arrived at the square.
An intangible cultural heritage inheritor stood in the center of the square, holding a thousand-pound hammer, observing the fire from all directions. He struck the molten iron high into the sky, blooming thousands of sparks like meteors streaking across the heavens, blossoming in the dark night, magnificent beyond compare.
Colors filled the sky; gold was born all over the ground.
Crossing a thousand years, the romantic “Iron Flower” blossomed before everyone’s eyes.
A uniquely Chinese romance.
Fire trees and silver flowers make a sleepless night; ten thousand stars bloom brilliantly.
In this dance of fire and iron, the hour hand slowly moved past eleven and arrived at the new zero hour, the new year.
When the countdown on the big screen in the center of the square turned to “1”, Xie Jingchu abruptly withdrew his gaze from the fireworks and looked at the person beside him. “Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year,” Shen Guanchao turned around coincidentally and said.
After speaking, both were stunned, then belatedly laughed together.
Xie Jingchu was still holding the flowers Shen Guanchao bought. He took a step forward and rubbed that purple head.
Shen Guanchao looked up, saying nothing about the young man’s behavior offending his elder, still smiling brilliantly.
This was their first time keeping watch for the New Year together.
No one knew that they would separate in the future, that they would scream and entangle, hurting each other.
But at this moment, time knew they would be eternal.
By the time Shen Guanchao had his fill of fun, it was already past one in the morning.
They randomly found a homestay to stay in. After showering separately, they lay on the beds with the lights off but couldn’t sleep. Xie Jingchu watched him tossing and turning in bed without a trace of sleepiness and inexplicably wanted to laugh. He suggested, “How about projecting a movie?”
“Sure.” Shen Guanchao smiled, immediately dismissing the idea of sleeping early, and patted the spot beside him. “Come over and watch.”
Xie Jingchu froze instantly.
They had booked a twin room. Shen Guanchao’s expression right now looked like he wanted him to… crawl over step by step. That smile was extremely bewildering.
He choked up for a moment.
“What’s wrong? Dawdling.” Seeing Xie Jingchu unmoved, Shen Guanchao pretended to be calm and burrowed into his warm quilt. “If you won’t come, I will.”
The bed wasn’t small. They gently pressed against each other, intimate yet nervous.
Xie Jingchu asked, “What do you want to watch?”
“Whatever. A horror movie?” Shen Guanchao lay comfortably on Xie Jingchu’s pillow.
Two minutes later, Xie Jingchu pointed at the phone screen. “Let’s watch this.”
“Okay.” Shen Guanchao glanced at it. The movie was called Eden. The cover poster wasn’t terrifying, just a patch of green, which was somewhat eerie.
Xie Jingchu pressed play, and the movie projected onto the screen in the room.
As the story began, the visuals were in cyan-gray tones. It was a cloudy day, the atmosphere extremely depressing, yet the protagonist ran wildly on the boundless grassland.
Shen Guanchao felt inexplicably nervous. He quietly fished for his phone. Whenever a horror scene came up, he pretended to look down and reply to messages.
Xie Jingchu turned his face to look at him. “Scared?”
“It’s okay…” Shen Guanchao pretended to be calm. He was usually bold. He originally thought watching a horror movie would make it easy to fall asleep, but now the loss outweighed the gain.
Suddenly, a horrifying image cut in without warning. Shen Guanchao shuddered in fright, and his phone instantly slipped from his hand and fell off the bed.
“Don’t be afraid. We won’t watch anymore.” Xie Jingchu paused the movie, wrapped his arm around his shoulders to steady him, and reached out to cover his eyes.
The warm large hand gently covered Shen Guanchao’s eyelids, smoothing his restless heart.
After feeling less scared, Shen Guanchao laughed. “Keep watching, it’s fine.”
This movie was very scary. From the character’s perspective, you could feel intense oppression and despair spreading all over your body, as if your thoughts were bound, leaving the mind unsettled for a long time. But afterward, whenever there was a terrifying shot, Xie Jingchu would cover Shen Guanchao’s eyes.
Shen Guanchao was happy with this arrangement, tightening his grip on his hand every time.
Later in the movie, there was a long horror sequence, bloody yet profound. Xie Jingchu kept covering Shen Guanchao’s eyes.
And Shen Guanchao simply closed his eyes, leaning on his shoulder, feeling the temperature of his palm, every breath surrounded by his aura.
Under such gentle comfort, Shen Guanchao peacefully sank into dreamland.
When Xie Jingchu took his hand away, he had been asleep for a long time.
His expression was peaceful, breathing steady; his sleep quality was better than anyone’s.
Xie Jingchu quietly traced his features with his eyesâfirst the eyebrows, then the fair tip of the nose, and finally landing on those soft lips, unable to look away.
“…”
“Have you kissed your idol?”
“What does it feel like? Soft?”
Mu Xinyue’s previous question suddenly echoed in Xie Jingchu’s mind.
He was silent for a moment, then gently pulled Shen Guanchao into his arms. The tip of his nose slowly approached his face, their breaths intertwining as the ambiguous temperature rose.
Looking at that face up close.
Xie Jingchu finally couldn’t hold back. Closing his eyes tight, he planted a kiss like a dragonfly touching water.
Lips covered lips, then separated immediately. Only one thought remained in his mind: It really is soft…
Fuck.
In his half-asleep state, Shen Guanchao felt the comfortable touch and tilted his face up.
It inexplicably gave rise to a sense of guilt in Xie Jingchu’s heart.
He actually… just stole a kiss from the person he liked.
Damn it.
Recommended Reads
![[Esports] I Started an Online Romance with a Big Shot After Retiring](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/esports.jpg)
