Before going to bed that night, when there was a gentle knock on the door, the first person that came to Xu Sheng's mind was actually Tang Zhi.
Probably because in Xu Sheng's subconscious mind, Tang Zhi was the only one in this house who would knock on other people's doors in the middle of the night regardless of the occasion.
But then, Xu Sheng heard Xu Keyu's muffled and unreal voice: "Brother, are you asleep?"
Xu Sheng opened the door, and Xu Keyu stood outside the door, looking at him uneasily: "Did I disturb your rest?"
This was the first time in Xu Sheng's memory that Xu Keyu took the initiative to look for him, so he lowered his head and asked gently: "I haven't rested yet, what's wrong?"
"Can I go in and talk?" Xu Keyu asked hesitantly.
Xu Sheng said yes, took a step back, and Xu Keyu walked in slowly.
She was pale, with curly hair draped over her shoulders. She looked at Xu Sheng with a harmless and helpless look, which almost made Xu Sheng suspicious. The man with blood on his wrist was shouting at Jiang Yan, who was coming over, that he wanted to have sex with Tang. Xu Keyu found someone else to act as the girl who insists on getting married.
"Brother," she sat down on the sofa in Xu Sheng's room and whispered, "I... want to register a marriage with Tang Zhi as soon as possible."
Xu Sheng frowned, paused for a while, and asked her as patiently as possible: "Can't we hold the wedding first?" Then he said, "Have you discussed it with him?"
"Tang Zhi said he would listen to me, no matter what." Xu Keyu showed a shy look, "He asked me to ask you."
Xu Sheng looked at her silently, not believing a word she said.
He didn't think that Tang Zhi would suddenly enlighten and say these sweet words to Xu Keyu, but he didn't tell her anything. He just confirmed to her again: "He said that?"
"Yes," Xu Keyu nodded shyly, "Tang Zhi dotes on me very much."
Xu Keyu's tone and words made Xu Sheng feel a little uncomfortable. Because he remembered the two completely different expressions and completely different words Tang Zhi made when facing Xu Keyu and facing him a few hours ago.
Negative perfunctory and shallow temptation.
Prevarication and vulgarity.
"Xu Keyu," he looked at Xu Keyu and finally asked, "What do you like about him?"
In Xu Sheng's view, Tang Zhi is like a semi-finished product, not even as good as a semi-finished product. He is down and out, vulgar, brutal, and reckless; he has a pretty face, but his beauty is cheap and kitsch.
"He is very kind," Xu Keyu pursed his lips, raised his chest, and told Xu Sheng proudly, "and very powerful."
Xu Sheng was sure that it was impossible for him to integrate into the world of mental patients. He could only hope that through treatment, Xu Keyu could break free from this morbid dream and see Tang Zhi and himself clearly.
Until then she was still Xu Keyu of the Xu family.
"Is it possible? I want to register my marriage with Tang Zhi," Xu Keyu seemed to become anxious when Xu Sheng didn't answer him, and asked him again, "Brother?"
Xu Sheng looked at her for a moment longer before saying, "You decide for yourself."
Xu Keyu showed a happy smile, said thank you and good night to him, and left his room.
After falling asleep, Xu Sheng had a dream about his childhood.
With her six-month-old belly bulging, his mother took him away from his father and boarded the plane heading south.
Together with his mother, he landed at the outlying island airport in Bingang after more than four hours of flight. He also changed his surname. He officially changed from the only son of a domineering family with stars in the capital's courtyard to the legal legacy of Xu Hefu, a wealthy businessman in Bingang. An ordinary member of the heirs.
Xu Sheng in the dream was very calm. In the car coming to the manor, he touched his mother's belly, felt the subtle rhythm from Xu Keyu, and asked his mother: "Am I going to be a brother?"
My mother said, "Yes, you will be the best brother in the world, and I will be the most responsible mother."
The first half of the dream is true, and the second half is false.
He now wants to be a more responsible brother, but he doesn't know if it's still too late.
The next day, his grandfather asked Xu Sheng to accompany him to an important dinner.
The dinner was held in the southernmost part of Bingang and ended very late. Xu Sheng didn't get home until a little later.
As the car drove past the main house, the garden landscape behind the low wall passed by the car window. Xu Sheng saw the lights beside the path light up.
The driver drove up without stopping and took him back to his residence.
The housekeeper was still standing in the entrance hall with the wall lamp turned on, waiting for him to open the door, and took his coat.
The living room is lit with candles scented with lemon, mint and verbena, which are Xu Sheng's mother's favorite scents.
Xu Sheng has been smelling it for nearly thirty years, and sometimes he even feels that as long as there is this smell, it can be regarded as home.
He passed the white marble living room and corridor and walked upstairs. The handrails of the stairs were polished until they shined. The white and black, the warm lamps and the photos on the stairs relieved his fatigue a little.
Entering the room, Xu Sheng was about to close the door when he suddenly heard someone calling him slowly from very close behind him.
"Mr. Xu."
Xu Sheng turned around and saw a pale and slender hand resting on the edge of the door, pulling the door outward a little, and a disheveled Tang Zhi appeared.
Tang Zhi leaned lazily against the door frame, raising his chin slightly and looking at Xu Sheng. His thin nightgown was like another layer of skin, clinging to his white chest.
"It's so late today, you must have a lot of fun," Tang Zhi raised the corners of his lips and asked with a smile, "What did you play? You smell like cigarettes."
Xu Sheng looked at him expressionlessly and said nothing.
Tang Zhi's voice was hoarse in a special way, and when he spoke in a low voice, there was a low-grade charm, like a bottle of crudely made sweet soda, with nothing but the sweetness of industrial saccharin.
Strictly speaking, Tang Zhi is not the type that Xu Sheng likes, nor is he the type that Xu Sheng hates. He is the type that Xu Sheng cannot see at all.
Thinking that Xu Keyu might like Tang Zhi's voice, Xu Sheng increasingly felt that his sister's aesthetics were too poor and needed to be corrected.
If Xu Keyu hadn't insisted on Tang Zhi, Xu Sheng wouldn't even have looked at him.
Tang Zhi didn't know what Xu Sheng was thinking, and had no interest in knowing. He stayed with Xu Sheng so late because he wanted to ask Xu Sheng something. However, when he saw that Xu Sheng seemed to have just come back from a party, he couldn't help thinking. Be provocative.
"I'm not having a good day today," Tang Zhi sighed to Xu Sheng, "Your sister—"
He originally wanted to talk about Xu Keyu's harassment of him, but he was interrupted by Xu Sheng before he started.
"—Tang Zhi," Xu Sheng asked him calmly with no expression on his face, "Do you have a problem with me?"
It was as if Tang Zhi was hinting that if he had nothing to say, he would immediately go back to the guest room.
"Yes," Tang Zhi was afraid that Xu Sheng would slam the door, so he stood up straighter and got down to business.
"Assistant Jiang told me today that Miss Xu hopes to register for marriage with me the day after tomorrow and has already made an appointment online. Does Mr. Xu know about this?"
"I know." Xu Sheng said simply and concisely.
Tang Zhi looked at Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng's expression was very calm, almost exactly the same as when he agreed to marry Tang Zhi and Xu Keyu that day, which gave Tang Zhi a headache.
Tang Zhi put away most of his smile, looked at Xu Sheng for a while, and asked in a low voice, "Can I not register?"
Xu Sheng looked at him for a few seconds and refused: "No."
"Why?" Tang Zhi frowned. A wedding is one thing, but registration is another. "I didn't mention registration in advance. If she is admitted to the hospital, who should I ask for a divorce? What if I meet someone who wants to get married? what to do?"
Xu Sheng looked at Young Master Tang Zhishi and asked as if he was too lazy to argue with him: "Don't you like men? Bingang doesn't support same-sex marriage yet. You're thinking too far."
Tang Zhi felt that Xu Sheng was as unreasonable as his mentally ill sister: "...even if I don't support same-sex marriage, I don't want to have this stain in my life."
Thinking about it afterwards, Tang Zhi thought it might be the word "stain in life" that made Xu Sheng unhappy.
Because Xu Sheng is an extremely protective person, Xu Sheng can look down on Tang Zhi, but Tang Zhi cannot look down on Xu Keyu.
So Xu Sheng's eyes turned cold. He lowered his head and asked Tang Zhi unceremoniously: "Is this the only stain on your life?"
"What's in your high school file? Why did you only go to college for one year?" Xu Sheng said slowly, his tone was not aggressive, but there was a mocking look on his eyebrows, "Your Majesty—"
He stopped and didn't say anything further, but Tang Zhi knew what he wanted to say.
Tang Zhi also calmed down and looked directly at Xu Sheng. After a long time, he was able to control himself and smiled gently at Xu Sheng: "That's true."
"I really didn't know I had so many stains unless you told me." He said to Xu Sheng with a smile.
Seeing that he seemed to be willing to give in, Xu Sheng paused for a while and gave Tang Zhi a step down: "I really didn't say that I wanted to register at the time. You can make another price."
The corners of Tang Zhi's lips were still curved, but there was no smile in his eyes.
"Make a price," he looked at Xu Shengshi, seemed to have thought of something, and asked softly, "Can anything be acceptable?"
"you say."
Tang Zhi stared at Xu Sheng, thought for a moment, and his smile suddenly widened, and he said, "Let's do this, Mr. Xu will kiss me."
After that, he approached Xu Sheng again and asked Xu Sheng like a patient who was more serious than Xu Keyu: "What, can't it be done?"
Xu Sheng did not retreat or answer. He looked at Young Master Tang Zhi and then said, "Come and talk to me when you feel normal again."
Tang Zhi twitched his lips again: "No, I can't be normal." He shook his head and said softly: "Because your sister is suffocating me."
Then, he raised his chin, brought his red lips full of desire to Xu Sheng's face, and said nonchalantly: "I need Mr. Xu to give me artificial respiration and tongue kiss for one minute before I can marry Xu Keyu."
The two were so close that they were almost touching each other. Xu Sheng could almost feel Tang Zhi's body temperature a few centimeters away. He smelled a sweet aroma that did not belong to this home.
There is a suggestive sweetness that goes well with Tang Zhi's rude actions and words.
Tang Zhi closed his eyes and came closer. At the moment when they were about to touch each other, Xu Sheng raised his hand to block him.
"Tang Zhi," Xu Sheng told him, "if you are really dissatisfied with your desires, I can help you find someone."
Tang Zhi opened his eyes, looked at Xu Sheng for a while, and suddenly smiled again: "There's no need to look for someone."
His eyes are very long and the pupils are very light in color. Xu Sheng admitted that he has a pair of eyes that are not so gaudy compared to other facial features.
"But Mr. Xu, I don't think you like being sexually harassed very much," Tang Zhi stared at him, his bright red lips opening and closing slightly, "Then do you know how many times Xu Keyu called me husband today? How much did he harass me? Second-rate?"
He looked into Xu Sheng's eyes and lowered his voice: "You have to pay a deposit even if you don't pay the full price when buying something. Do I want your money?"
"I'm quite cheap. If you give me what I want, I'll sell it. It doesn't matter to me if you scold me, but I still have to collect the damn deposit," Tang Zhi stared at Xu Sheng and showed a slightly sarcastic smile. "Let me meet with the lawyer first, let me know that there is hope for my mother's retrial, and then I will register with your baby sister."
From the perspective of negotiation, Tang Zhi actually came to the negotiating table with nothing, his skills were poor, his bluff was fierce, and he had no chance of winning.
But Xu Sheng only needed Tang Zhi and Xu Keyu to register their marriage, so he didn't care about his rudeness, looked at him for a while, and agreed to his request.