Lin Jian "s jaw dropped so wide until it earned a chuckle from Yao Ying. Yao Ying asked him, "Why do you look so shocked?"
"You aired your dirty laundry [1] shamelessly!" Where was your pride as a man, Yao Ying?!
Yao Ying looked at Lin Jian like he was a fool. "You are not good enough to listen to my dirty laundry. It"s just a simple thing of me trying to curry favor to my own wife. What"s wrong with that?" He raised one of his eyebrows, wanting to know what else Lin Jian would say about this matter.
"But… how could you say about it so openly? Sleeping on the floor is embarra.s.sing! It means you are henpecked [2]! What did you do to deserve that kind of treatment anyway?" Lin Jian tried to find some juicy gossip.
Remembering what he had done the previous night made him grinned happily. Lin Jian looked at Yao Ying like he saw a lunatic. "What are you grinning about?" Lin Jian asked.
"I did take advantage of her last night," Yao Ying simply admitted it without going to the details. How could he say that he made a garden out of his crazy love bites? Thinking back, Yao Ying couldn"t help but grin once again. He misses his dear little wife.
"What?! You are a beast!" Lin Jian gasped exaggeratedly while closing his mouth with one of his hands. "What kind of beastly things that you had done? Tell me! Tell me!" His gossipy nature started to come out. He looked at Yao Ying expectantly.
Yao Ying flicked Lin Jian"s forehead which earned an "Ow!" from the latter. "Stop being so childis.h.!.+ Find yourself a woman and you will naturally know about it yourself!"
Yao Ying poked on Lin Jian"s sore spot. He also wanted a woman ah~ But he liked no one, so what could he do? Just randomly picked a woman on the street and married her? Lin Jian scowled and said, "Fine! Fine! I won"t ask you anymore!" He didn"t want Yao Ying to talk about his single status. Lin Jian paused for a little while, then asked, "So, what do you plan to give to your wife?"
"No idea." Yao Ying was truly at a loss. He never courted woman so far, even the one who proposed to him was Yao Ling. He had no idea what he should give as a compensation for his little wife. What does she like? He realized that he never really paid attention to the subtle details like that. He thought to himself, "I should pay more attention to my wife"s likes and dislikes."
"Ah… ah… I have a lot of ideas. You should listen to me… Women usually like…"
Before Lin Jian finished talking, Yao Ying squinted his eyes at him, cut him off, and said, "I don"t trust you!" The meaning was clear. "Don"t bother to tell me, because I won"t listen to you. What can you do to me, huh?" Yao Ying was arrogantly looking down at Lin Jian.
"Wha… what?" Lin Jian felt like he was turned into a stone and he was cracking in despair. "Why?" He whined like a child.
"You are not a woman and you don"t have a woman. Why should I trust you?" In other words, single people was no use. Scram!
"Since when you become this black-bellied?" Lin Jian asked, whining in anguish.
"Since I met you." Yao Ying casually admitted. Before he met Lin Jian, it made his black-bellied side come out --- just for the sake of teasing and bullying Lin Jian. "En... since he met him," he thought to himself righteously.
Lin Jian felt like vomiting blood after listening to Yao Ying"s answer. He decided to just completely ignore him and changed the direction of the conversation. "Ah… you are right! If you want an idea, the place that I want to take you is a great place to ask that question," Lin Jian said proudly.
"Really?" Yao Ying somehow didn"t believe that this Lin Jian was a sensible person. However, w.a.n.g Luo Hai did tell him to stick with Lin Jian, so he could only follow him for the rest of the day. "Then... I"ll trust you this one time. Lead the way!" Yao Ying said hesitantly, but his voice got stronger at the end. He decided to believe him --- just this once.
"Good!" Lin Jian clapped both of his hands happily. "Trust me! You won"t regret it!" He jumped happily for a little bit, then motioned to Yao Ying confidently, "Follow me!"
They walked to their destination while talking. To the others, it would look like they had the best relations.h.i.+p in the whole world. But actually… it was more like Yao Ying was bullying Lin Jian with his short and deadly answers. He was in a bad mood, to begin with, and he was happy that he could release it to Lin Jian for a little bit. It didn"t deter Lin Jian"s will to talk merrily with Yao Ying though. Both of them were as stubborn as mules.
One thing for sure, Yao Ying would feel regret for listening to Lin Jian"s idea.
They went to the street where Yao Ling met Xiao Xia, but the two men didn"t find the food stalls as interesting and appealing as Yao Ling, so they just pa.s.sed it by without a second glance. They stopped in front of a big building in the middle of the bustling street.
The big building was a mixture of red and white color. There a lot of women scattering inside and outside of the building. The decoration was quite ambiguous and some of the women were trying to find customers by touching and calling men who were pa.s.sing by. Red colored lanterns were put up on every corner of the building, making the building looked very bright dazzling in the middle of other dull buildings.
There were a lot of men coming inside and going out at the same time. The ones who went inside had a look of antic.i.p.ation of their faces, while the one who went out had a satisfied look --- judging from their grinning face. All of them were accompanied by at least one woman on their side. They didn"t feel shy, even though it was practically in the daylight! This place didn"t differentiate between daylight and night time! The business was always opened, welcoming the customers happily.
When some of the women saw Lin Jian, they called him excitedly, "Young Master Lin, you come again! Ah… and you also bring your handsome friend… Quick! Come inside! We already miss you. It has been a long time since the last time you came."
Although the women behaved seductively, but they cleverly add basfulness and coyness to make the customer"s feel happy. In this case, it was Lin Jian.
Lin Jian laughed and followed the women leisurely like he had been there for a thousand of times. Yao Ying was gaping at the crazy scene before him. He looked up and saw what the building was called --- "Thousand Pleasures". It was a Hua Lou! A brothel! He felt like fainting in anger!
Was this what Lin Jian called as a good idea? He was not stupid! He knew what kind of place this was. If he stepped in, he was pretty sure that Yao Ling would kill him if she knew. Before killing him, she would probably castrate him out of anger and jealousy!
He was supposed to curry favor at her by giving her presents to avoid sleeping on the floor once again. However... by being here, he was pretty sure that he wouldn"t be able to sleep inside his own room!
"No… no… no… I won"t go in there," Yao Ying said. He adamantly refused to step into the building.
---
[1]. To air your dirty laundry means to talk about private issues amongst others that are not involved. It originates from the fact that your dirty laundry (an a.n.a.logy for dirty secrets) should be kept out of sight when people are visiting, otherwise it could be embarra.s.sing for you or them.
[2]. Henpecked: (of a woman) continually criticize and give orders to (her husband or other male partner). It can also mean the husband is afraid of the wife.