Don’t Be a Kept Man

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Even just glancing at the patterns on the window curtains and morning had already arrived.

A faint ray of sunlight peeked through the window blinds, and Xun Chuan shifted his head, his body was like a giant octopus as it clung onto Yan Yu.
He scrunched up his eyebrows as the sun started to wake him up, trying to hide under the sheets when Yan Yu pulled him out.

“Come on, wake up.
We still have to take the bus.
Don’t make us miss it.”

Yan Yu grabbed a jacket, not looking even a bit tired.
His face looked to be chiseled out from the finest marble, looking so handsome from the side, but the closer you looked, the more it felt like something unknown was lurking underneath.
Xun Chuan slouched on his back and then opened his eyes, pinching Yan Yu’s waist before letting go.

Yan Yu turned to look at him, but he didn’t get mad.
Seeing Xun Chuan pull himself up to sit on the bed cross legged, looking evidently very unwilling, he reached out to ruffle his hair before heading to the bathroom to wash up.

They had reserved bus tickets for 9 o’clock in the morning, and beside the station was a shop that could barely be considered a bubble tea chain store.
Yan Yu, holding his black umbrella, took a look at the bright sun burning in the sky and then went over to buy a cup of bubble tea.
He passed it to Xun Chuan and asked, 

“Want some?”

Xun Chuan wanted to say no, but looking at the half transparent cup, he realized it was his favourite grape juice.
As the ice clinked, he leaned over to take a sip, but no flavour could be tasted.

He pushed it towards Yan Yu, 

“You drink it.”

Following his order, Yan Yu took a sip, and Xun Chuan asked him, 

“What flavor does it taste like?”

“Couldn’t taste much,” 

Yan Yu hooked his bag onto his fingers as one hand held up the umbrella, and the other held onto Xun Chuan’s hand, walking towards the station, 

“Tangy, sour.”

This time, they were still in a window seat.
The seat beside Yan Yu looked to be occupied by a middle aged man who smelled strongly of liquor and smoke.
When he talked, spit flew everywhere, and before he even took his seat, his shoes were already almost off his feet.
He even squished towards Yan Yu, stuffing his big suitcase up top, and another right under Yan Yu’s seat.
With a rough voice and an unfriendly attitude, he said, 

“Ack, give some space, give some space.”

Yan Yu slanted his cold eyes over, the aura around him freezing into a dangerous territory, 

“Who are you telling to move?”

With his tall figure, and his face bordering on the devilish side, the pressure he gave off was heavy.
That middle aged man suddenly felt that Yan Yu was not a simple pushover, but instead a vicious character and so he did not dare to utter another sound.
He dragged the suitcase under Yan Yu’s feet back over to his own feet and then muttered something no one could understand.

Xun Chuan didn’t mind if this situation turned out worse for the wear, almost even wanting something to happen.
He poked Yan Yu, 

“He’s cursing you.”

Yan Yu said, 

“I’m not deaf.”

And then pulled Xun Chuan back over to him, blocking the leg he was kicking towards that middle aged man, and locking him securely by him.
No one else could see Xun Chuan, and so Yan Yu’s chain of actions were a bit weird.

“You just know how to ruin my day.”

Xun Chuan glowered at him, but then repositioned himself again in his embrace.
Seeing how the middle aged man was eyeing Yan Yu as if he were mental, he flicked out a string of resentment, and the other immediately slumped over, his head slowly lowering, asleep.

Yan Yu lifted his eyes and faced Xun Chuan’s gleeful and wicked eyes.
He twisted his body to block the stares from the other people onboard and grasped his chin, kissing him on the cheeks.
His long fingers pulled the curtains taut, not letting a single ray of sunshine in.

Xun Chuan closed his eyes, his eyes that had long and thick eyelashes, which were trembling without a pause.
He slowly wrapped his arms around Yan Yu’s neck, snuggling up tight to him in this cramped seat, as the dust in the air danced and a field of wild meadows and mountains greeted their eyes through the window.

Su Qing was just returning from an exorcism in the afternoon, just as the last bit of light was just about dissipating from the sky.
Traversing through the alleyways, she saw a drunken lonely man, and behind that man was a hopping clown who had on his shoulder a hammer that glimmered with a black light.

The clown’s face was painted with thick oil paints, and he was wearing an extremely exaggerated big red nose and clothes that were decorated with bright coloured stripes.
His mouth was set in a freakish kind of smile, the one where the more you looked, the more terrified you would become.

When she rounded the corner to head into another alleyway, Su Qing’s senses  immediately felt that something was wrong.
She paused in her footsteps.
The drunken man did not seem to have found out that such a ludicrous clown was behind him and he bent over slightly, facing his lower half, looking as if he was going to pee.

In the next moment, the wall highlighted the large shadow of a hammer going way up high and then ruthlessly pounding down.
In that moment of contact, it was as if she heard the sound of a skull cracking.
The drunken man trembled all over, and in that moment, a weak, hard to notice soul momentarily separated from its body and shattered into a million pieces, swallowed up by the clown.

Shocked out of her mind, Su Qing quickly covered her mouth and turned to run away.
Her footsteps echoed in the silent alleyway, with her heart about to jump out from her throat.

OH MY MOTHER, when did such a high level aggressive ghost appear here, how did she not know! It’s all gone wrong, all gone wrong, must run away, must leave!

Su Qing brought with her these scattered and broken thoughts all the way home, never thinking that when she entered the building, she would bump into another surprise.
It was a man, and the two of them stumbled back from their collision.

“St……Ouch.”

Su Qing was tall, and much more muscular than the average woman.
She just barely caught the metal door and used it to stabilize herself.
Holding her head in pain, she looked over and saw the other was a man, and then took another closer look before realizing that it was actually Yan Yu.
In that moment, she breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Friend, where did you go? I’ve been trying to find you for so long.
There’s so much work to do, and I thought you went missing.”

As she spoke, her eyes fell onto his hand that was holding Xun Chuan and her expression changed slightly.

Yan Yu said, 

“Went back to my childhood home for a bit.
You weren’t here in the morning, so I didn’t have time to tell you.”

And then continued to hold Xun Chuan’s hand as he went up the stairs.
Su Qing followed behind when her heart began to remember the scene she just saw in the alleyway and she started to panic again.
She continuously turned to look behind her as she warned Yan Yu with her voice as gentle as usual, but now tinged with an unconcealed panic, 

“Yan Yu, I just saw a high level malicious ghost around here.
I can’t stay here anymore.
After I send over all the wandering souls in my hands for reincarnation, I’m going to move.”

“High level malicious ghost?” 

Yan Yu pulled out his keys to open the door, and then shook the hand holding Xun Chuan’s, 

“You mean him?”

Xun Chuan coldly snorted and kicked him.

Su Qing waved at them, 

“Ack, no, even more stronger than him.
I won’t say much more, I have to go pack up.
You guys better quickly quickly pack up and leave too.”

And then she quickly ran up the stairs, truly becoming a woman as flippant as the wind.
Yan Yu retracted his gaze and shook his head as he said, 

“Truly remarkable.”

Running so fast even on stilettos.

Even after just a night out, there felt like a sense of being away for too long just by coming home.
Yan Yu threw his bag onto a chair, taking a seat beside it and didn’t want to move.
Xun Chuan sat on the desk, lightly bumping into his feet, 

“Are you going to move?”

Yan Yu grabbed onto Xun Chuan’s ice cold feet, pondering, and was moving his head but it was uncertain if he was shaking or nodding.
He suddenly remembered something and said to Xun Chuan, 

“I still have Chi Xia’s soul with me.
I’m going to pass it back to Su Qing.”

And then pushed the chair back, standing up, and under Xun Chuan’s gaze, bent over to kiss him.

When Su Qing said she was going to pack up, she really went home to pack up.
Not a single lie or hesitation.
Things filled the floor, not at all resembling a place where a woman lived.
Yan Yu knocked on the door, 

“Can I come in?”

Su Qing was bent over, packing what she could into her suitcase.
Hearing his voice, she turned her head to look over, and said with a voice that was honestly too nice to listen to, 

“Ah, what a rare guest.
What’s up? Come in.”

Yan Yu walked in and placed the jade bottle containing Chi Xia lightly onto the table.
Then thinking about it, unknotted the jade gourd around his neck which contained Su Yu’s soul, 

“Will have to trouble you to help them reincarnate tomorrow.”

Su Qing said, 

“What about the one in your home? Need my help for that one too?”

She was just asking out of courtesy but then realized that Yan Yu didn’t make a sound and she whipped back her head in shock and asked curiously, 

“No way right.
You really want me to help?!”

Yan Yu paused, 

“I can send him myself too.”

He glanced at the corner of a desk where there was a picture of a really beautiful long haired lady.
She was smiling in a very cutesy but elegant way, even more beautiful than a celebrity.
Her eyes were warm and gentle, a bit like Su Qing, but there was absolutely no way in which the two could be linked together.

Yan Yu was just puzzling through it when he heard Su Qing sigh, 

“Why be like this? It’s already hard enough to live, even harder when you’re together.
An interchange of life and death, a standoff between the two, there is no way to solve this, but this may not be that bad.”

Yan Yu’s fingers twitched, lifting his eyes to look at her, 

“What did you say?”

Su Qing didn’t pause her movements in folding her clothes, 

“I wasn’t going to blabber so much but it’s just, when I moved in that day, your so and so gave me a diagram to decipher.
A Sheng Si Ju… I’ve already tried my own reading, and the ages just happened to match the both of you.”

Yan Yu narrowed his eyes, 

“You told him?”

Su Qing shrugged her shoulders, 

“He asked, so I naturally answered.
You didn’t tell me that I couldn’t say it either.”

Hearing this, Yan Yu’s mouth twitched, as if he wanted to laugh, but couldn’t.
In the end, he just exited Su Qing’s home and closed the door, with the hand on the door knob almost popping its veins.

Su Qing chased after him, and pulled her door back open.
Seeing that Yan Yu did not immediately leave, she apologetically smiled and waved her hand to say, 

“If you can’t bear to send him then I could help you.
After all, I’d be doing it anyway.”

Yan Yu said, 

“No need.”