When Tong Qiu got home, he stressed over what to do with the bouquet. It didn’t really matter if he kept it but then again, what kind of person keeps a bouquet that their ex-husband had used as a prop for a ‘proposal’? And if he didn’t keep it, it would be as if he were throwing a piece of someone’s ‘heart’ away.
Tong Qiu stood there and drank an entire bottle of the yogurt drink that Huo Zhixing had bought for him. Afterwards, he found two plastic bottles, filled them with water and once he had torn off the ribbons on the bouquet, he stuffed the flowers inside.
The flowers were quite pretty but the ‘vase’ was too ugly and Tong Qiu figured he should probably buy a decent-looking vase sometime.
Once that was taken care of, it was already getting late. Tong Qiu paced a few circles inside his flat, feeling too restless to do anything. He flopped down onto his bed and his thoughts started running wild. His head was full of Huo Zhixing’s “can we” and Huo Zhixing’s low, sexy voice. It was such a turn-on that even his hair was all hot and bothered.
Tong Qiu couldn’t take it anymore so he curled up into a ball and decided to take ‘matters’ into his own hands. Once he had gotten it over with, he jumped into the shower but still felt unsatisfied when he finished.
He rummaged through his closet and pulled out the dozen or so pairs of thongs that he had hidden.
There were thirteen pairs in total. He tried on every single pair.
When you’re feeling lonely, you may as well go out and find a way to entertain yourself.
Tong Qiu gazed into the mirror and decided that his ass was still the kind of ass that could turn heads. He gave his buttcheek a hard slap in an attempt to imitate the shameless shou’s from AV’s. However, he underestimated his own strength and hit himself with so much force that his bottom started smarting. At the sight of the bright red handprint on his skin, he felt the urge to snap a photo and send it to his ex-husband. That would show Huo Zhixing the true definition of the word ‘sexy’.
The thought of it also made Tong Qiu feel the urge to slam his head against a wall. He had finally come to the conclusion that he still felt a little something about his ex-husband.
That wouldn’t do. A good horse doesn’t go back to graze on the same pasture. What’s more, the grass from that pasture wasn’t that tasty anyway. It was a big world and there were green pastures everywhere – he had to shift his focus.
Tong Qiu forced himself to recall Huo Zhixing’s disastrous skills in bed. He resolved to not mess around with his ex-husband and avoid repeating his past mistakes. No matter what happened, he couldn’t succumb to the ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ mentality. Huo Zhixing was just another good-looking face and he was over it already.
He searched through his closet again and found the shirt he had secretly bought but had been too embarrassed to actually wear.
A few minutes later, Tong Qiu stood in front of the mirror in a pair of tight, ripped jeans and a loose t-shirt with a revealing back. He clicked his tongue and said to his reflection, “My friend, are you aware of the fact that you’re a teacher?”
Evidently not.
Tong Qiu’s everyday wardrobe consisted of proper, practical items and he’d always wear dark-hued shirts to work. In his downtime, he would occasionally wear lighter colours or more casual clothes, but nothing as ‘bold’ as this.
He thought he looked pretty handsome, not unlike the many youngsters he had seen at the bar. The only problem was, he was already in his thirties and wasn’t exactly a youngster anymore.
Tong Qiu hesitated and dawdled for about an hour before finally making the decision to throw on his coat and head off to the bar.
Humans have to let out their wild side sometimes, you know?
Tong Qiu reasoned with himself: if all the feelings you’ve been repressing don’t make you explode, then they would probably turn you into some kind of pervert. And since you don’t want to go down the pervert route, then let’s just let it out for a bit.
He counted on his fingers while he sat in the car. It had been over three months since he had done it and if he thought further back, he hadn’t been properly ‘fed’ throughout the year he had been married to Huo Zhixing. Now that they were divorced and he was single again, there was nothing wrong with a grown man like him going to a bar at night to hook up, right?
Tong-laoshi was a ball of nerves as he stepped inside the gay bar he used to frequent.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He was still a bit scared; back when he used to go out, he would usually spend his evenings with Chu Yao and the others. Left to his own devices, his only choice was this particular gay bar because it was the only one he was familiar with.
He didn’t have the guts to expand the map of his ‘hunting grounds’ – this was the best Tong-laoshi could do.
Lf mjiwis kjixfv lcrlvf jcv rabbv ja atf yjg klat atf lcafca bo rmbqlcu bea tlr ‘qgfs’. Llr lvfji ajgufa kjr rbwfbcf klat j wermeijg yeliv jcv j ijguf ‘kfjqbc’ atja mbeiv yf klfivfv foofmalnfis. Ktja rbwfbcf jirb tjv ab tjnf qifcas bo rajwlcj, bg ja ifjra wbgf rajwlcj atjc tlr fz-teryjcv.
Glass in hand, he leaned against the bar like a little wildcat and continued his search. Eventually, he managed to meet someone’s gaze, someone with a pair of very familiar eyes that held a glimmer of amusement.
The glass almost slipped out of Tong Qiu’s hand. He was shaken to the core and his insides were screaming ‘Holy crap! It must be fate!’
—
When Tong Qiu had come in, he had taken off his coat so that he was only wearing that loose t-shirt. The back of the shirt looked as if someone had purposely clawed at the material and his smooth, pale skin was visible through the holes.
Tong Qiu already felt that his outfit was a bit too scandalous but if he had known that that person would be here, he never would have dressed like this.
Actually, if he had known, he wouldn’t have bothered coming here in the first place.
The moment he laid eyes on Huo Zhixing, Tong Qiu’s first instinct wasn’t to run or to walk forward to greet him. His first instinct was to put his coat back on.
The current Tong-laoshi was like a kid whose parents had caught him at the internet cafe, or like a brat whose principal had caught him getting into fights, or even a certain Feng Kaiwen whose homeroom teacher had caught him dating a girl.
—
There was no police investigation today and Huo Zhixing wasn’t waiting around because of some wild guess about Tong Qiu’s whereabouts. It was simply a coincidence. He had been dragged here by Zhao Heyu and was just here to console the kid about the state of his love life.
Huo Zhixing and Zhao Heyu had been sitting close to the door. If they hadn’t, he wouldn’t have noticed Tong Qiu as soon as he had come in.
The lovelorn Zhao Heyu had become a bit muddled after a few drinks. He frowned and squinted at the man who had entered. “Shifu, did someone catch your eye?”
“Hm?” Huo Zhixing had a soft drink in his hand and he took a sip. “What caught my eye?”
“That one, the one by the door.”
There was an extremely coquettish air to the way Tong Qiu was dressed today. It wasn’t his usual style at all and the tipsy Zhao Heyu didn’t even recognize him. Zhao Heyu actually thought his shifu had taken a liking to an outrageously brazen boy.
“Your tastes have changed.” Zhao Heyu said between gulps of his drink. “But change is good too. I mean, look at me. I’ve been chasing the same person from when I was a student to a grown adult with a job. When you take everything into account, it’s been four years already. Four years! Four…years…”
Zhao Heyu mumbled to himself as he let out a long stream of complaints. He then gave his shifu a powerful clap on the back. “I still think shimu’s looks are the real deal but if you want to try a lil something new, then this disciple will keep it a secret.”
“Keep it a secret?” Huo Zhixing grinned. He set down his glass, then pushed away the arm that Zhao Heyu had propped on his shoulder. “Stay put and keep drinking on your own. I’m going to go over and chat.”
While Huo Zhixing was dealing with Zhao Heyu, Tong Qiu had already planned his escape. He couldn’t possibly face his ex-husband in his current state.
People who were young could dress however they liked and still get away with it. However, the problem was that Tong Qiu was dressed a little too frivolously for both his age and his status. All he had wanted was to take advantage of his youthful features and have a little fun, maybe let out some of that pent-up frustration. However, now that he had bumped into someone he knew, there was no fun left to be had.
Tong Qiu seized his chance and turned to leave, but in the end, Huo Zhixing still called out to him.
“I almost didn’t recognize you just now,” Huo Zhixing said, coming to stand in front of Tong Qiu.
Tong Qiu let out an awkward laugh and unconsciously tugged his coat more tightly around his body.
“You just got here but you’re leaving already?”
Huo Zhixing was right in front of Tong Qiu and no matter how you looked at it, there was nothing innocent about their current position. However, Tong Qiu’s motives for coming here tonight weren’t innocent to start with. The way he had dressed wasn’t all that innocent either and yet, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt.
Whenever Huo Zhixing asked a question, Tong Qiu would take a step back. And whenever he retreated, Huo Zhixing would slowly press closer until eventually, he had backed Tong Qiu into a corner. Zhao Heyu, who was nearby, stared at them with his glass in hand and murmured, “My shifu might be getting on in years but he’s still got it. Took no time for him to pull it off.”
He mistakenly thought that the two in the corner had already started kissing.
“I went the wrong way.” Tong Qiu truly had no experience with these kinds of situations. If he were facing anyone else, it wouldn’t be so bad. The problem was, the person he was facing was Huo Zhixing.
“Are you meeting up with someone?”
“No.” Tong Qiu regretted his words as soon as he said them. It would be even harder to get away now.
Huo Zhixing smiled as he gazed into Tong Qiu’s eyes and didn’t speak for a few long moments. Without warning, he put his finger under Tong Qiu’s chin and tilted his face, then whispered against Tong Qiu’s ear, “Since Tong-laoshi isn’t meeting anyone, then would he do me the honour of having a drink with me?”
Tong Qiu had come here in search of a hookup and his body had been burning with desire even before he arrived. Right now, Huo Zhixing’s voice against his ear flowed through him like boiling water. It quickly spread through his entire body and every patch of skin was set aflame.
Who was it that said Huo Zhixing didn’t have a single romantic bone in his body and didn’t know how to spice things up?
He clearly knew exactly what he was doing!
Tong Qiu honestly wanted to sit down with his pre-divorce self and have a nice, long heart-to-heart.
—
Huo Zhixing led Tong Qiu to another seat. On the other side of the bar, the drunk Zhao Heyu realized that his shifu probably had his hands full tonight and so he sent Huo Zhixing a text saying that he was going to head out first. He even added a reminder to ‘seize the moment and make it last’ and to hurry up and do the deed. He even added a friendly reminder: ‘don’t forget a condom’.
Huo Zhixing didn’t know whether to praise or berate such a thoughtful disciple.
Tong Qiu watched him sullenly. To think Huo Zhixing had the audacity to smile at his phone.
He ordered a bunch of drinks all in one breath. When he finished ordering, he suddenly realized that Chu Yao wasn’t around and that Huo Zhixing couldn’t drink any alcohol, so every drink he ordered was his.
His mood soured even more.
“Why did you come here?” Tong Qiu figured he had just as much right to ask questions since Huo Zhixing had already interrogated him.
Everyone had an indecent reason for being here, after all. No one had the higher moral ground.
“Zhao Heyu was heartsick so he dragged me here to keep him company.”
Tong Qiu was speechless. Turns out Huo Zhixing really did have the higher ground after all.
“That doesn’t make sense. From what I remember, Zhao Heyu isn’t gay, right? If he’s heartsick, what’s he doing at a gay bar?”
Huo Zhixing put his phone away and smiled at Tong Qiu. “But I’m gay. He said that ever since I got divorced, I had become an old empty-nester, so every time we go drinking he’d take me to a gay bar to help me find a target.”
Tong Qiu furrowed his brows.
“But a bar is still a bar, so even if you meet someone you like, it’ll probably just end in a one night stand.” Huo Zhixing leaned into the back of the sofa and flashed an unreadable smile. “I’m not really used to it.”
The server came by with the drinks. Tong Qiu took a glass and downed a large gulp. “Oh.”
Tong Qiu’s response was seemingly indifferent but in his head, he was yelling, ‘who are you trying to call out here?’.
To be honest, Tong Qiu wasn’t too used to the concept of one night stands either. This was his very first attempt and in the end, he had failed before he had even started.
Meeting his ex-husband while trying to find a hookup – if Chu Yao got wind of it she would definitely laugh at him.
“You look different today.”
Tong Qiu heart ‘clicked’ for a moment and he thought, ‘Ah, it’s finally here.’
“Do you know what ‘cosplay’ is?”
“Who are you cosplaying?”
“Tong-laoshi when he was young,” Tong Qiu said unabashedly. “When I was in my twenties I was a sexy little thing, you know.”
Huo Zhixing grinned and Tong Qiu’s confidence faltered.
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“I believe you,” Huo Zhixing replied. “I just think it’s a shame that we met too late.”
Tong Qiu felt that his words had hit a nerve. They really had met too late and had been too careless about their relationship. And in the end, they hadn’t known each other’s true colours even after getting married.
Tong Qiu sipped at his drink and smiled bitterly. “If we had met earlier, I’m afraid you wouldn’t have bothered marrying me at all.”
“Who knows?” Huo Zhixing gazed at him and said, “Maybe I would have fallen even more in love with you.”
The author has something to say:
Tong Qiu: Huo Zhixing said even more!
Agsggshshshsjjsjsjsjsjsjjs Officer Huo already shoot his shot, what are you gonna do now, Teacher Tong???? 😆😆😆😆😆
Thank you for the update ❤
Yes, Officer Huo is making his move! Thanks so much for reading! 💕
Oh god! It’s a cliff hanger! Repeat, cliff hangerrrr!
God, i am sooooo excited about this!
Ahh I’ll have the next chapter up as soon as I can! Thanks for reading! :))
The best of luck Tong-laoshi! Hahahahaha!!!!
😂😂 Thanks for reading!!
small world for a socially withdrawn gay nerd😂
I really appreciate your dedication to putting a footnote over as many laoshis in this novel as you can write. If there’s anyone who doesn’t know laoshi means teacher by the last chapter of the novel, I’ll eat my hat
Hahaha yes as the author said, their ‘fate’ is in her hands so the world can be as small as she wants it to be 😉
LMAO I figured I’d include it once in each chapter just in case but hopefully ‘laoshi’ will be part of everyone’s vocabulary by the end! 😆😆
Thanks so much for reading! 😀
aaaaa you’re welcome! i see all your hard work, this is such a cute novel^_^
“Even more” as in, he’s still in love with you. Oh god. 😳
Ahhh that was exactly what I thought when I read it! flails
Thanks so much for reading! 💕
Heh heh heh Tong-laoshi!!!!!!! Officer Huo has made his move now it’s your turn!!!!!!!!! :—)
thanks for the chapter hehe I have a silly grin on my face constantly while reading their interactions lmao Huo Zhixing is like a tiger stalking his prey!!!!!!!
It’s really fate! What were the odds?! If Tong Qiu is that eager to get some action, Huo Zhixing must comply fufufu
Thanks for the chapter!
Tong laoshi, please hand your ass over to Huo-ge for a good smacking lol
I hope they could get a room already
Thanks for the chapter
He said even more!!!!!!!! I’m choking from the sexual tension ahhdgdhhdhs. Just fuck it over you guys. Then maybe your brain cells won’t be so repressed anymore and you can talk.
Thanks for the chapter!
Tong laoshi, I only pray for less willpower for you! Hahaha!
Thank you for the wonderful chapter!!!
I need moooree! Such a cliffy 🙁 But thanks thoo 🙂
There are already a lot of comments about “even more” on this chapter already…But here’s another cuz there needs to be EVEN MORE!!!
just finished catching up with the chapter.
thank you so much for the translation!!!~
annnddd ugh just hook up already! then you will find out how bad Mr. Policeman skills in bed is, eh?
😝😝
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! ٩(♡▽♡ )۶
Thank you so much for the chapter!(๑´>᎑<)~❤
reall smootth Officer Hou
Goooooooooooooood this is so sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
Even more…
In all the novels i have read the common denominator for having a good relationship besides those trust was don’t be passive when it comes to bed scenes. I honestly don’t understand why still Tong Qui kept his pride and pretended to be prim and proper. If he had issues with satisfaction he could have cooperated.. his husband won’t be able to know what really likes not until he accidentally heard the convo about him not being good in bed scenes
I think he put gps in his beautiful husband! lol
I’m going to take every hair out of my head if they don’t do some advance in the next chapter, just TALK and get things cleared so you can live your romantic life and remarried, arg!
Thank You for the chapter (♡ >ω< ♡)