Chapter 292: UNHEALTHY OBSESSION

As they headed back to the estate, Guiying let out a long, depressed sigh, so long that both Haiyan and Fu Pei turned to look at him with concern.

"What’s wrong?" Fu Pei glanced at him, dropping his phone. "Was it too spicy?"

"I miss my husband so much; I wish I could go with him."

Fu Pei rolled his eyes; he let out a long hiss. He had been concerned for nothing. It hadn’t been a day, yet he was already whining.

"Have you heard of that saying? Distance makes the heart grow fonder?" Haiyan tapped the steering wheel, though the expression on Guiying’s face told him he did not like that response.

"Yeah, yeah. You both are usually glued to the bone whenever you are together; some space is healthy."

Guiying sighed; was that how people saw them? Not that he minded; he liked that they saw they were always together, better than always being apart.

"Your husband is a busy man; he must be racing against time to get back to you." Fu Pei finally glanced at Guiying; this was his own hypothesis, but his and Liu Liuxian’s relationship had a bit of an unhealthy obsession.

And it wasn’t just Liu Liuxian; Guiying was equally obsessed.

Though it was not his position to talk, it was not his relationship; maybe this was what worked for them.

Matching each other freaks without harming themselves.

"So you should reassure him that he can take his time, that although you miss him, you will wait for him. You both don’t think properly when it comes to one another, so I have to knock some sense into you."

Guiying sighed; he guessed Fu Pei was right. He wanted Liuxian to come home but not at the expense of his work.

"I must be paying you millions with how you are taking your job seriously..." he laughed, rubbing his fingers as the estate came into view.

Butler Wang was waiting at the door when they parked; Guiying bowed at him when he got out of the car.

"I’d have to trouble you to get some helpers; there is some stuff in the car..."

Fu Pei got out of the car, walking to the booth; he brought out four cartons of ramen. Placing them on the ground as Haiyan brought the cart so they could head to the employee building.

"We took four from it. Two for me, two for Haiyan."

Guiying nodded; he doubted old Li would let him eat the noodles, so the more they took, the better.

"Okay. See you both tomorrow then, goodnight."

Fu Pei nodded, loading the cartons into the carts.

"Goodnight." Fu Pei climbed into the cart beside Haiyan, already prying open one carton to check the flavor stamped on the lid. "Don’t forget to actually rest tonight instead of staring at your phone until three in the morning. You’ve got work in the morning."

"No promises."

"Guiying."

"Fine, fine." He raised both hands in surrender, already backing toward the entrance. "I’ll sleep."

Haiyan pulled the cart forward, the soft hum of the motor fading down the path toward the staff building.

Guiying stood there a moment after they’d disappeared, watching the taillights shrink between the trees, something in Fu Pei’s earlier lecture still sitting with him.

You should reassure him that he can take his time.

He hadn’t thought of it that way before. He’d been so focused on missing Liuxian that he’d never once considered how that longing might read from the other side, whether Liuxian felt the pull of it too or whether every rushed phone call carried its own quiet pressure to hurry home faster than the work allowed.

He tucked the thought away, unsure of what to do with it.

"Long day, young master?" Wang Chengli’s voice pulled him back, the older man standing patient beneath the entrance lights.

"A good one, actually." Guiying stretched, some of the earlier heaviness finally easing out of his shoulders. "Long, but good."

"I’ll have someone bring these inside." Wang Chengli glanced toward the remaining cartons stacked near the trunk. "Old Li will have opinions about it being unhealthy."

"He always does."

Inside, the house had settled into its evening quiet, the day’s chaos giving way to something calmer.

Old Li’s head appeared from the kitchen doorway, and the moment his eyes landed on the ramen being carried in behind Guiying, he let out a sigh so deep and so put-upon it seemed to carry the weight of every unhealthy meal he’d fought against for years.

"I already ate, don’t worry." Guiying held up both hands before Old Li could start his usual speech about vegetables and portion sizes. "Fu Pei and Haiyan took most of it anyway."

"Small mercies." Old Li shook his head, muttering something about ungrateful young people and their instant noodles as he disappeared back toward the kitchen.

However, the fondness underneath the grumbling was impossible to miss.

Guiying climbed the stairs slowly, the ache in his legs from the day’s shoot finally catching up with him, each step a little heavier than the last.

He didn’t head toward his own room. He hadn’t, not once, since the night of the fight.

Liuxian’s door stood at the end of the hall, and his feet carried him there out of something closer to instinct than decision, the way water finds the lowest point without needing to be told.

Plus, Liuxian’s room was sort of their couple room now, though they should consider getting an actual couple room when he returned.

The room still smelled like him. Faint, familiar, as though he had sprayed his pheromones all over.

Guiying breathed it in the moment he stepped inside, something in his chest loosening that he hadn’t realized had stayed tight all day.

He showered first, letting the hot water work the stiffness out of his muscles, then pulled Liuxian’s pajamas from the drawer without a second thought, the fabric hanging looser on his own frame, the sleeves needing to be rolled twice before his hands appeared at the cuffs.

He was halfway into bed when the laptop on the desk began to vibrate, the sound sharp and sudden in the quiet room.

He crossed to it fast, checking the screen. Popping up was Liuxian’s name.

He answered before the second ring finished.

"Hi!"

"My love, did you just shower?" Liuxian’s face filled the screen, hair damp on his end too, the hotel room behind him foreign and dimly lit, nothing like the space Guiying had just claimed for himself.