Chapter 154: Extra: A Lover’s Daily Life – On Owing Favors

Chapter 154: Side Story: Little Daily Life of Lovers - About Owing Favors

In the sixth year since Su Lichen started his business, they were both thirty-five, which was also the year Su Lichen came out to his family.

Rather than calling it coming out, it was more like Su Lichen wanted to formally introduce to his parents the person he would spend the rest of his life with.

What made Su Lichen certain that he could walk through life hand in hand with Xu Moxing was something he had gradually come to feel sure over the fifteen years they had been together.

He would eventually introduce Xu Moxing to his parents sooner or later, so why now?

Because an incident happened, and that incident was the trigger.

At thirty-five, both of them had achieved the place they wanted to be in their careers, or rather, they no longer felt lost. Most of the time, they were pretty content with how things were.

Occasionally, when they saw peers doing much better than them, they felt a brief flash of anxiety, but they'd quickly calm down.

After all, happiness belongs to the contented, not to those who compare.

There's always someone better out there. There will always be someone better than you, more capable than you.

Su Lichen's company was developing steadily, it didn't have many employees, but it made decent money.

Su Lichen's parents had already bought him a house, so he had no real financial pressure in life.

But life always needs some pursuits and goals, otherwise, it's easy to fall into nihilism.

What Su Lichen wanted most were Xu Moxing and his career.

As for Xu Moxing, Sister Zhong had already retired early to enjoy her old age, and Xu Moxing took over her position.

In a way, Su Lichen admired Xu Moxing even more.

Because Xu Moxing could be said to have made his way step by step on his own, unlike Su Lichen, who was influenced by his family growing up.

After Shen Qin got divorced, Xu Moxing and Xu Jianqing immediately chipped in to buy Shen Qin a house, a three-bedroom place with a living room. One advantage of a bad economic environment was that housing prices kept falling.

The housing prices in their small town were not expensive to begin with, and over the years they had become even cheaper.

Shen Qin insisted on paying half of the money herself.

"Your money wasn't easy to earn, and you still have to give me living expenses every month. I still set up a little stall once in a while, and I still have some money. I want to chip in."

After the divorce, Shen Qin became more and more gentle, and she no longer complained easily. Xu Moxing felt he could see what she was like before marriage.

Yes, if her husband had not been incompetent and her thinking had not been trapped by the environment and herself for so many years, how could Shen Qin have turned into that kind of "ghoulish" mother after marriage?

But not everyone is lucky enough to awaken their thinking. Xu Moxing and Xu Jianqing were already very content that Shen Qin could change like this.

This change in Shen Qin also made the brother and sister very grateful to Luo Shuling, and the relationship between the two families had been getting better over the years.

On the day the house was registered in her name, Xu Moxing and Xu Jianqing immediately moved all their belongings that were still at Xu Lan's place to Shen Qin's.

Every year when they went home, they spent the New Year at Shen Qin's place, didn't give a damn about Xu Lan.

Since the divorce, both of them felt more like going home. Sometimes they also went home for the National Day holiday.

Xu Moxing no longer delayed going home until the 29th day of the lunar month or New Year's Eve. But it was hard on Su Lichen, who had to endure longer bouts of missing him each year.

Recently, Su Lichen had been very busy, stressed out by inventory and payment issues. Unconsciously, he reverted to his old way of thinking and didn't keep Xu Moxing in the loop.

"Ah Li, what do you want to eat tonight? I should be able to leave on time."

"I'll be back late."

Su Lichen was very annoyed and just gave Xu Moxing a perfunctory answer.

"Oh, okay. Then I'll eat by myself."

Xu Moxing curiously sent another message.

"What's up? Overtime? Something wrong at work?"

Su Lichen saw it but didn't reply, going back to work.

When it was time to get off work, Xu Moxing grabbed his car keys and left.

He was really tired of squeezing onto the subway, and with the subway raising prices every year on various excuses, after thinking it over, he bought a small electric car for commuting.

The car's exterior was his favorite color – pink, but because of that, he ran into trouble a lot.

Because those creeps, seeing a pink car, assumed it was driven by a woman, and often deliberately cut him off illegally.

As for how he knew the thoughts of those creeps who deliberately cut him off, it was once when a man angrily came over, saw he was a man, and muttered, "It's a guy?"

As a man himself, he also wondered how there could be so many disgusting men?

They're vile, bully women, and won't even admit it, utterly disgusting.

Xu Moxing was only confused the first time; after that, he got the hang of it.

After all, it was the other party's full responsibility. Those people vented their dark thoughts, and most chose to pay compensation and settle privately.

After driving the car for half a year, Xu Moxing had actually made tens of thousands of yuan from it, earning back the money he spent on the car.

It was nice to earn money, but it was a real hassle, took up time, and ruined his mood.

Recently, Xu Moxing was considering whether to change the color of the car, but he hadn't taken action yet.

Driving along, Xu Moxing planned what to eat for dinner. Since Su Lichen was coming back late, he couldn't be bothered to cook.

It wasn't that he pinned his not cooking on Su Lichen; sometimes it was just an excuse to be lazy.

"Maybe I'll just grab something at the fast-food joint near the neighborhood."

Xu Moxing muttered under his breath as he drove carefully.

Unexpectedly, another creep deliberately tried to mess with him today, suddenly changing lanes across a solid line. Xu Moxing expertly "accidentally" sideswiped him, and it was the other party's fault.

Xu Moxing sat in the car, already knowing how this would play out.

The creep was bald with a beer belly, a cigarette dangling from his fingers as he got out, cursing.

"Damn bitch, if you can't drive, stay off the road. Women drivers are useless. Get out and hand over the cash."

Xu Moxing cracked the window, letting him see his face.

The creep's curses abruptly stopped. "It's a guy?"

"Want me to call the cops, or do you want to settle this now?"

The gross dude nagged and badgered for ages, then paid up reluctantly, cursing under his breath, and left.

Xu Moxing sighed and drove on home.

"Gotta get it fixed again. Profitable, but still—why are there so many gross guys in this world? They're just crowding out normal guys."

After dinner, Xu Moxing went home and played with Little Tabby for quite a while before his mood settled.

By the time Su Lichen came back, Xu Moxing was in a good mood again.

"A Li, did you eat? At work?"

"Yeah."

Xu Moxing didn't notice anything off about Su Lichen and kept chatting.

"What'd you eat? You seem swamped lately—what's up?"

Su Lichen was deep in thought and answered with a slightly impatient tone, almost without thinking: "Company stuff. You wouldn't understand anyway."

Xu Moxing froze, lifted his head from his phone to look at Su Lichen.

The man before him was frowning, deep in thought.

Xu Moxing didn't get angry. He got up, pulled Su Lichen over to the sofa, held his hand, and leaned his head on his shoulder without a word.

When Su Lichen finally came out of his thoughts, he realized he had said the wrong thing. His hand twitched.

That twitch let Xu Moxing know he was back in the moment. Before Su Lichen could speak, Xu Moxing said,

"A Li, done thinking?"

"Mm... Mo, I—"

Su Lichen wanted to apologize, but Xu Moxing cut him off.

"You don't gotta talk about it if you don't want. It's fine.

Sometimes I just talk too much and wanna ask about everything. If you don't want to say, you don't have to—just let me know."

"Sorry... I went back to how I used to be."

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it. Sometimes I slip back too, without meaning to. We'll take it slow."

One "failure" doesn't mean anything. Dwelling on it is pointless—after all, they were both working hard to change for each other.

Just sometimes, because of all kinds of things, they'd accidentally slip back into old patterns.

Su Lichen, with their fingers still interlaced, squeezed it.

"It's not that I don't want to talk. My head's full of work stuff—trying to figure out a solution. I just don't have the energy to chat much."

Su Lichen felt he had to clarify: he wasn't refusing to talk, not like before when he said nothing. It was just work, leaving him no mental space for anything else.

Xu Moxing rubbed his head against Su Lichen's shoulder.

"I totally get it. Sometimes I can't be bothered to talk much either. Explaining things takes energy. Sometimes I'm so tired I don't wanna say a word. I completely understand."

Xu Moxing could still put himself in someone else's shoes—as long as he wasn't caught up in his own emotions, he could understand Su Lichen.

"Mm. But I still owe you an apology. I shouldn't have said that."

"Okay, I'll let it slide this once."

Xu Moxing lifted his head to look at Su Lichen. Su Lichen tilted his head, and they kissed.

The kiss deepened until Su Lichen had Xu Moxing pressed into the sofa, his hands starting to wander.

Xu Moxing was the one to call it off.

"Stop, stop, stop. I have a meeting tomorrow. I need to save my energy—no sex."

Su Lichen stopped, kissed him again, then pulled him close.

They lay on the sofa, Su Lichen on the inside, holding Xu Moxing tight so he wouldn't fall off the sofa.

"Good thing the sofa isn't too small, and we're not too big."

"Mm."

Su Lichen rested with his eyes closed but was still listening to Xu Moxing.

"Got cut off on purpose again today. Made some money, heh!"

Xu Moxing rolled his eyes slightly and continued, "I'm thinking maybe I should change the color, you know? What do you think?"

"Mm... I think it's a good idea. Always getting into these incidents, even if they pay out, isn't exactly good luck. We don't need to make money like that."

"Yeah, that's what I think too."

There's no way around it—this world is way too hostile toward anything pink.

Sticking with it only brings endless hostility and drains his energy. Xu Moxing has to live and work; he doesn't have the energy to deal with all this.

He's not a superhero—just a regular guy trying to get by in a messed-up world.

His safety always comes first.

Changing the environment isn't something an individual can do by insisting on not changing. It takes systems and more people waking up.

It's something the whole society, the law, and law enforcement need to work on.

An individual doesn't have to bear the burden of "changing the world" alone.

When more and more people wake up and speak out, society, laws, and law enforcement will have to consider these groups. The cost of acting out their dark impulses will go up, and those creeps will back off.

Until then, prioritize taking care of his own life first. If he has extra energy, he can think about other things.

Xu Moxing started planning the car color change. To change the color, he'd have to file it with the DMV.

Which colleague had changed their car's color before? They'd talked about it in the office.

Xu Moxing tried to recall—oh, it was Sister Zhong, who's already retired.

Sister Zhong was really good to him. She was the best boss he'd ever had in his career.

Xu Moxing still sends her food from time to time, grateful for her support and guidance.

As he thought about it, a random memory surfaced from long ago—he still owed Su Lichen one.

Xu Moxing gave Su Lichen's cheek a poke. "Feel like talking now?"

Su Lichen kept his eyes closed, lifted the finger that had poked him to his lips, gently bit it, and then spoke.

"Now I do. Go ahead."

"Do you remember when I said I owed you a favor? After that car accident that gave me amnesia, you looked after me so carefully for such a long time."

Su Lichen opened his eyes and said honestly.

"Hmm... As far as I'm concerned, you've already made up for it. Even though you didn't want to have anything to do with me before, you still looked after Little Tabby when I was on a business trip."

Back then, one was bending over backward to patch things up, while the other was sure the relationship was unsalvageable and wanted no further contact. That rift caused a ton of stuff to happen afterward.

At the time, Xu Moxing thought it was a pain and thought reconciliation was impossible, but now looking back, he just thought it was funny.

"I know this sounds conceited, but did you adopt Little Tabby and Little Cow back then just to have more chances to hang out with me?"

"Of course. I'd never even considered getting a cat before then."

Su Lichen sat up with Xu Moxing in his arms, and looked at Little Tabby, who was sleeping in the cat bed closest to them.

"But now, I can't imagine life without her. I just hope she can live happily, free from pain, until she passes away naturally."

"We've lived together for so many years; we've definitely bonded."

Xu Moxing did the mental math and suddenly laughed.

"Little Tabby is over six years old now, much quieter than before. In cat years, she's around our age."

Su Lichen caught on and laughed too. "Haha, now our family of three is all middle-aged—in our thirties and forties."

"Time flies so fast. I feel like I've only gotten a little better at adulting, but I still feel like I'm in my twenties."

"That's normal. Many people have a gap of several years between their actual age and how old they feel."

Su Lichen rarely truly felt like he was thirty-five. It wasn't that he didn't accept his age or that he wished to be younger—he just didn't feel it in his bones.

They had both been subtly conditioned by society to believe certain ages were meant for certain things, but because they hadn't followed that schedule, they always thought they were younger than they really were.

Yet, as they aged, changes in their bodies and energy levels made them realize they were getting older.

Not having a sense of their age doesn't mean they are immature or irresponsible.

Just because you're doing what you're "supposed to" at a certain age doesn't make you mature or responsible. Age and maturity are unrelated.

There are plenty of people who get married in a daze, have children, and toil for most of their lives, yet they still act like giant babies.

"How about a little ceremony? To mark us becoming middle-aged."

Xu Moxing suddenly had a whimsical idea and proposed it.

"Hmm? How about you repay that favor by marrying me? I'd be willing."

"Can't offer a marriage, but I can take annual leave for a honeymoon. What do you think?"

Xu Moxing leaned in and kissed Su Lichen spontaneously.

"I think it's a good idea."

Su Lichen enjoyed Xu Moxing's spontaneous kiss. After the kiss, his earlier work-related irritation had completely dissipated.

"Let's go after I finish this busy period, okay?"

"Sure, just let me know in advance. I need to apply for a long leave early."

"Alright."

A month later, after Su Lichen had wrapped up his work and Xu Moxing had secured his long leave, the two went on their honeymoon.