No Money to Divorce
Translator: h.e.l.liot
Editor: NH
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 56: Don"t Want the Wabbit
Adrian “…”
Was it ugly? Doesn"t it look quite good though? It must be because the effects of the anesthesia was too strong that Zhong Yan"s mind was muddled. He"ll ask again when Zhong Yan was more sober.
Adrian, who firmly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his aesthetics, naturally pushed all the blame to the muddle-headed Zhong Yan, whose mind was currently in a mess. Since they couldn"t talk about proper business anyway, he sat by the bed and continued to tease Zhong Yan. “Do you like me?”
All the calm in Zhong Yan"s beautiful phoenix eyes disappeared at that moment, and only a look of pure ignorance was left. Without any hesitation, he said, “I do.”
Flowers were practically blooming in Adrian"s heart. He secretly turned on the recording function on his terminal and urged him, “Say it again.”
Even though his brain was now a paste, he still had a restrained nature. Zhong Yan hesitated, but this was a request made by Adrian. He always satisfied Adrian"s requests, whether it be big or small, so he still said in a whisper, “I like you.”
“I like you too,” Adrian told him. Then, he leaned over to place a kiss on his lips.
Zhong Yan looked dazedly at him, and a faint red blush emerged on his cheeks. He grabbed his blanket with his hands and wanted to bury his face in them.
Adrian was afraid that he would agitate his wound if he moved and make it hurt even more once the anesthesia wore off, so he quickly got on the bed and held him over the blanket, not allowing him to move.
“What are you shy about?” He teased, “Didn"t you test the goods before we married? What"s with you getting all bashful now?”
Zhong Yan couldn"t understand his sordid words and softly asked, “What?”
He was so cute that it made Adrian giddy, but at the same time, he felt a little guilty. It felt like he was talking about dirty stuff with a pure little child. He quickly cleared his throat and changed the topic. “Cough cough, it"s nothing…Right, do you want to see the rabbit? I told Intron to bring the small one over. I"ll bring it over for you to play with, okay?”
Zhong Yan subconsciously reached out to grab the hem of his clothes. “Don"t go.”
“I won"t go.” Adrian carefully brushed away the messy hair on his forehead. “I"ll go and bring you the rabbit.”
“I want you, not wabbit…” Zhong Yan said. Then, he realized that he wasn"t p.r.o.nouncing it quite right, and tried to correct himself in confusion. “Wabbit. Wa…bit…”
The anesthesia affected his ability to control his tongue. After failing to make the correct sound after several tries, Adrian tried his best to endure, but he still couldn"t resist holding the person in his arms tight as a deep laugh vibrated from his throat. “Alright baby, I"m not going anywhere so you can stop, okay? Good boy.”
Feeling as if he was wronged, Zhong Yan stopped. Finally, he expressed his thoughts resolutely. “I want you. I don"t want you to turn into a wa…bit…”
“I"m not turning into a rabbit.” Adrian couldn"t stop himself from laughing. “We have to rabbits at home, do you remember? We have a giant s.p.a.ce rabbit with lop ears, a white one.”
Zhong Yan shriveled into Adrian"s warm embrace and started to feel a little sleepy. When he heard that, he was barely able to manage waking up a bit. “Giant s.p.a.ce wabbit…is there one here?”
“There is. Do you want to see it?” Adrian asked. If Zhong Yan really wanted to see it, then it would be quite troublesome. Wei Lan had already warned him, so he wouldn"t dare to move Zhong Yan too much. The rabbit was too big and it couldn"t get into the house. What if…he installed a camera in the back yard?
While he was thinking of a viable method, Zhong Yan suddenly asked after some thought, “So is this place…controlled by my thoughts?”
Right, he"s still stuck in the setting of “being in heaven” and was even trying to figure out the mechanisms of it. Adrian didn"t know whether he should laugh or cry. Before he could say anything, Zhong Yan said with great enthusiasm, “When can I have a bigger one? I had one once. But it"s too small, less than 26 feet.”
Adrian “…”
He raised his hand to tap Zhong Yan"s nose. “You ungrateful little thing. Do you know how much effort it took for me to buy that rabbit? The research inst.i.tute is two star systems away from here. I had to drive the whole day to get there and back just so I could bring you a New Year"s present, and you"re complaining that it"s small? Do you know how expensive lop-eared giant s.p.a.ce rabbits are? I"m all broke now, that thing"s already the most valuable thing I own in my a.s.sets.”
Zhong Yan was beginning to struggle with opening his eyes. Adrian lightly patted his back to lull him to sleep while speaking softly at his ear. “However, even though I"m almost broke after just getting married, it"s too late for you to regret now. The divorce penalty will be much higher than the refusal fee. As the saying goes, marry a chicken, follow the chicken, marry a dog, follow the dog…”
“Mm.” Sleepily, Zhong Yan could only muster a hum, but it wasn"t known whether he was agreeing or not. Slowly, under the soothing male voice and the gentle patting, he fell asleep.
……
When Zhong Yan woke up once more, he was woken up by the pain.
Wave after wave of pain came from his abdomen. He thought he was still in that murder filled mansion house and softly called out, “Ade…”
Adrian had always stayed right by his bed, watching over him. After hearing his movements, he immediately shut off his terminal that he was working on and took Zhong Yan"s hand, responding, “I"m here. Xiao Yan, I"m here.”
Zhong Yan turned to look at Adrian, then at the room. All his memories returned, and he quickly raised his left hand despite the pain to look. Sure enough, there was a ring on the ring finger of his left hand. What happened earlier…was actually real!
Since he moved too quickly, he agitated his wound. He was in so much pain that he sucked in a breath. Adrian quickly caught his left hand and reproached him softly. “What are you rushing for? You just had an operation…slow down!”
The identical rings present on both their ring fingers clashed together, emitting a crisp and pleasant sounding clink.
Zhong Yan was eager to confirm it. “This ring is…”
“It"s the ring I bought seven years ago to propose.” Adrian brought his left hand in front of him so he could see. “It"s cheap, but it"s custom made. There was a custom ring shop in the art academy, I chose the design myself. Do you like it?”
Zhong Yan “…”
He looked at the inexplicable and unfashionable lines on the ring, as well as the two names that should"ve been engraved on the inside, but were casually printed outside of the ring for some mysterious reason. And the more horrific part was, the names were not engraved, but rather protruding. Zhong Yan truly felt that him saying “it"s so ugly” before was wrong. It really should have been “it"s too ugly”. Adrian was waiting expectantly for his praise, so Zhong Yan tried with difficulty to find the right words. However, he couldn"t sincerely say it looked “nice”, so he could only say, “Looking at it closely, it…it"s quite special.”
“Right?! I think so too! It"s one of a kind.”
Zhong Yan recalled to when his mind was in a blur, as well as what Adrian had said just now, and a balloon called joy slowly expanded in his heart. But he didn"t dare to believe it, and confirmed carefully, “Why did you give this to me? Is it…is it to uphold the image…”
“What do you mean image?” Adrian said in dissatisfaction. “I proposed to you yesterday. You"re not planning to reject me, are you? That won"t do, you"ve already put it on, and you"ve already been married for two days. It"s too late to regret it.”
“Who proposes like you?” Zhong Yan couldn"t hold back his laughter. “I haven"t even agreed and you"ve already put the ring on me.”
Even his eyes were covered in mirth. Adrian watched him adoringly, and suddenly realized he had not seen Zhong Yan this happy in ages. He couldn"t help but feel a tw.a.n.g of pain in his heart. He held his hand and brought it to his lips in a cherishing kiss. “I"ll treat you well from now on.”
“You"ve always treated me well,” Zhong Yan said with his eyes curved pleasantly. “You"re the one who treats me best.”
He had never encountered much goodwill in his life, so he was easy to satisfy. Adrian felt extremely guilty, and he solemnly vowed once more. “I treated you terribly in the past, but I"ll definitely be good to you in the future.”
Zhong Yan responded softly, “Alright.”
His wound was throbbing with pain. As he got more sober, the wound started to get more and more painful. He shut his eyes and endured it for a moment. Adrian held his hand and asked in pity, “Does it hurt badly?”
“It"s…bearable.” Zhong Yan sighed. He had never liked having Adrian worry over him, so he tried his best to change the topic. “I think I heard you mention you went broke? Did I hear wrong?”
“Not yet.” Adrian reached out to caress his face. “Thank G.o.d you had a strong will. The operation was a great success so we barely managed to keep our house and cars.”
Zhong Yan did not seem to have understood what he meant, so he asked in suspicion, “Was the operation…expensive?”
Adrian hesitated for a moment. Actually, he didn"t really want Zhong Yan to know how much he spent to s.n.a.t.c.h him back from the Grim Reaper"s hands, but this incident had already exploded throughout the entire virtual community. Yesterday, it didn"t take long for Zhong Yan"s blood type to be dug out. What"s more, the wanted order that was spread throughout the Federation stated it clearly. Qu Yongyi attacked Adrian and Zhong Yan, and both of them suffered serious injuries. Everyone knew that he burnt through all his money just to save Zhong Yan. For a moment, it seemed that no other news could be found within the virtual community at all. Everyone was eagerly talking about the reward video and the relationship between the two of them. Later, even the big news of the Lebor System"s borders being forcibly sealed off by Navi"s troops, and receiving three consecutive serious warnings from the Capital received barely any viewers.
Zhong Yan would find out sooner or later. Instead of letting him see the gibberish speculations all over the virtual community, he might as well come clean to him right now.
Adrian tried to understate it as much as possible. “You have a rare blood type, right? So I offered a reward yesterday in order to buy the blood. And rewards and stuff…You know how it is, n.o.body will come if it"s low. Then, a few people came in. The headquarters helped me out with some of it first since I don"t have much liquid a.s.sets. Then, to settle the debt, I let them confiscate all the real estate I had besides this house and several transport vehicles. Oh right, speaking of which, I thought about this when I was sitting outside the surgery room. The reason why you like giant s.p.a.ce rabbits so much…is it because they"re mutated rabbits, and you"re a person with a mutated blood type? Hahahaha…”
Zhong Yan glared at him bitterly. “That"s not funny.”
Hearing that, Adrian shut his mouth obediently. But he did not give up in diverting Zhong Yan"s attention. He turned on his terminal and presented his little treasure to Zhong Yan. “You fell asleep earlier so I picked out a new ringtone, give it a listen.”
Zhong Yan didn"t want to listen to that sort of insignificant thing since he still had a lot he wanted to ask, but before he could say anything, he heard a familiar voice being transmitted from Adrian"s terminal.
“Don"t want the wabbit. Wa…bit…wa…wabbit…”
“What is that!” Zhong Yan threw his other thoughts to the back of his mind, and asked with both anger and embarra.s.sment, “Why did you record that?! Delete it!”