Christmas Day. There were Christmas decorations everywhere. Regardless if it was the mall, street, public plaza, or the company, there were Christmas trees of all sizes at every place.
It was Christmas today. Unfortunately, it was on a Friday. There was no holiday in the company and everyone had to report to work. Those with partners had no chance to date, and those with no partners felt nothing.
To Ke Yan and Jiang Qi, Christmas was a very special day. It was Christmas Day when they confessed to each other. Today, Jiang Qi took out the ring he hid in the study. It was the day he had planned to propose to Ke Yan.
Jiang Qi wondered if Ke Yan would be startled by this today. He opened the ring box and saw a platinum gold ring with a simple design. On the ring were some engraved words. When Jiang Qi went to choose a ring, he had a strong impression of only this ring. It was simple and Ke Yan liked simple things.
“You’ll definitely like this year’s Christmas present.” Ke Yan said to Jiang Qi when he was about to leave the elevator.
“What is it?” Jiang Qi’s curiosity was aroused. Ke Yan gave Jiang Qi gifts every year, but had never said such a sentence “you’ll definitely like it” before to him.
“You’ll know in the afternoon.” Ke Yan just smiled.
“Okay then.” Jiang Qi left the elevator.
The lift door closed again.
“……”
The lift was very quiet. Although it was just the same as usual recently, Ke Yan still did not ride on his exclusive elevator and instead rode with Jiang Qi in the employee elevator. Usually, no one would squeeze in with them.
However, the number of people in the lift was not small, there were even people on the working floor who couldn’t take the lift down.
They all stood at the side to sneakily glance at Manager Jiang and President. Although they stood at the side, the s.p.a.ce between them and the President could fit another in.
No one dared to touch the President and did not dare to squeeze the President.
Ke Yan also didn’t mind others looking at him and Jiang Qi, so he didn’t say anything.
However, everyone realised that once Manager Jiang left the elevator, the President’s aura became colder.
w.a.n.g Si Qi wanted to find Sun Nian Qing yesterday regarding this issue, to have her think of some ideas. But Sun Nian Qing was on sick leave yesterday, and she (WSQ) did not want to ask the secretary for Sun Nian Qing’s handphone number. She could only wait till today.
In the morning when she went to her office, she saw a number of people gathering together, talking about how gentle the President was to Manager Jiang and even said that he was going to give him a gift.
w.a.n.g Si Qi was suffocating from internal anger. Why did she have to hear about how well Ke Yan treated Jiang Qi on such a fine Christmas Day?
“Work.” w.a.n.g Si Qi’s mood was bad. The word ‘work’ was almost said as a shout, and even her voice was a little broken.
The crowd heard and scattered fast. They began to do their own work and did not spill a single word of gossip.
It was clearly Christmas. They were almost lectured for gossiping a little. Might as well hurry to finish their work, then they could go for dates after.
Just like this, the entire morning pa.s.sed. w.a.n.g Si Qi went to find Sun Nian Qing the moment it was afternoon.
Once Sun Nian Qing saw w.a.n.g Si Qi, she immediately knew the reason she came. Sun Nian Qing spent the whole morning hearing enough gossip, so before w.a.n.g Si Qi said anything, Sun Nian Qing started, “I know what you want to say. I don’t believe that their relationship is that strong. I definitely won’t leave it as it is.” She left her seat for the cafeteria the moment she finished talking.
w.a.n.g Si Qi blankly looked at Sun Nian Qing’s back view. What had Sun Nian Qing thought of her as? Seriously! w.a.n.g Si Qi left too and from the sounds coming from her high heels, one could tell that she was currently fuming.
After lunch, Ke Yan told Jiang Qi that he wanted to bring him to a place.
“Where to?”
“Look at the opposite side of the company.” Ke Yan brought Jiang Qi to the mid level of the company.
“Is there something opposite?” There was nothing else other than the two shops wrapped in cloth. The rest were just as usual.
“Look carefully.”
Ke Yan had Jiang Qi look closely. After Jiang Qi looked as carefully as he could, he suddenly found that the store wrapped in red cloth actually had an image of a Santa Claus. From afar, it looked like a very huge present at a glance.
“Ke Yan, what is that? A present?” Jiang Qi pulled on Ke Yan’s hand.
“Yes, I’ll bring you over for a look.” Ke Yan flipped and pulled Jiang Qi’s hand to walk towards the opposite side of the company.
“What is it?” Jiang Qi was curious as to what that big present was.
“You’ll know in a while.”
The two stood in front of the huge present on the opposite side of the company. Ke Yan pa.s.sed Jiang Qi a rope he took from above. “Pull it.”
Jiang Qi heard Ke Yan’s instructions and pulled strongly. The entire cloth came loose and fell messily onto the ground. Jiang Qi looked at the store that entered his view. Green outer walls that had drawings of many colours on them to ill.u.s.trate the look of a forest and an arch for a door with green leaves on it.
Looking up further, the shop’s signboard was also made with wood, on it was engraved: ‘Jiang Qi’s Treehouse’.
Jiang Qi moved forward to touch the door k.n.o.b. His eyes were watery. He pressed his head on the door.
“What’s wrong?” Ke Yan hugged Jiang Qi’s shoulders. Observing Jiang Qi’s expressions previously, he was afraid that Jiang Qi would not like his design.
“Nothing.” Jiang Qi shook his head, but his tears were about to fall.
Ke Yan wiped Jiang Qi’s tears. “Why are you crying, silly?”
“It’s because I’m so touched. Ke Yan, if there’s a second life, I’d definitely want to meet you again, to be with you. No one else could be better to me than you, no one else could love me more than you. I never thought that you’d give me such a gift.” Jiang Qi thought about how Ke Yan put the wish that he (JQ) mentioned in his (KY) heart and quietly helped him to fulfil it.
“If I can’t be good to you, I’d never be able to be good towards anyone else. Jiang Qi, I love you, I really love you a lot. I like spoiling you, watching you smile, and for your every wish, I’ll do my best to make it all come true. I only wish to see you smile. Don’t cry anymore, let’s go in and have a look.”
Ke Yan held Jiang Qi’s hand and put it onto the door k.n.o.b. The two of them opened it together.
The colour scheme inside was mainly green. However, the thing that made Jiang Qi unable to look away from was a wall that Ke Yan cleared. On it was a chibi drawing of both of them, ill.u.s.trating the process of their first meeting and their journey of loving each other. Lastly, it was a drawing of the scene of their confession under the Christmas tree.
Jiang Qi smiled and went over to touch the chibi drawings on the wall. “How adorable.”
“Come over here and take a look.” Ke Yan held Jiang Qi’s hand and they went to the little attic upstairs.
“During renovation, I had someone specially craft this. I owe you a gift.”
“What gift?”
“A child. We’ll go buy some furniture over the next few days to fill this place up. Next time, when you pick up our child from school, you can let the child rest here while you wait for me to finish work.”
“Okay. You must remember that you owe me a gift.” Jiang Qi wasn’t as emotional and his mood couldn’t get any better.
“This store has two levels of s.p.a.ce to display books. I’ve designed a place where people can read and have already marked out the area. But for some places, I still have to ask for your opinions before I can renovate it.” Ke Yan brought Jiang Qi to tour around the two levels.
“Okay, I want to specifically design an area where children can read books.” Jiang Qi had been to many bookstores selling children’s books. However, there were no places that were specially made for children. It made the little children have nowhere else to read but with the adults. However, many adults did not like having young children to read next to them, so many children could only sit on the floor to read.
“Okay, but we can settle the bookstore’s matters tomorrow. I want to bring you to a place today.”
“Ah? Where to? I want to bring you to a place too, but it’s a little far from here.” Jiang Qi looked at the time, afraid that there would be no time if they went to two places.
“Do you want to go to the Christmas tree where we confessed?”
“How did you know?”
“It’s because I want to bring you there too.” The two shared a smile and walked out of the bookstore. Driving out of the company carpark, they drove to the plaza where they confessed to each other.
In the car, Jiang Qi asked Ke Yan curiously, “Why is the bookstore named Jiang Qi’s Treehouse?”
“Firstly, the name itself has you in it and it’s a name I’ve always wanted to choose, so I put your name in. As for treehouse, the p.r.o.nunciation of tree and book1 are pretty similar so I used the word ‘tree’. I’ve always wanted to put in the word ‘house’, because I remembered your appearance when you nest in bed, on the sofa, and even the floor, as you read books. So, I also really wanted to name it as such.”
“How nice.” Jiang Qi liked it a lot, the happiness in his heart was about to overflow.
Yang Shao Yu was busy the whole day because he was going to do something important. He had to move all the furniture they previously bought together into his house, have the renovation workers arrange them, then move the old ones into the spare room. As he helped out, he kept glancing at the time. He should be able to make it in time, to finish everything before he went to fetch Lin Zi Rui.
Thankfully, Yang Shao Yu’s house was big enough to fit everything.
At this time, Lin Zi Rui got off work. He intentionally told Yang Shao Yu a later time than the actual time he got off work. All of this was because he wanted to bring over something from his house to give Yang Shao Yu a surprise.
Moving box by box into the car, then checking again if he missed out on anything, he then started driving towards Shao Yu’s house, no, he should say home.
He had a very warm home, and in that home, there was Shao Yu. Lin Zi Rui blissfully smiled.
Finally arriving, Lin Zi Rui looked at the boxes in his carboot, wondering how he would even go upstairs with all the boxes.
Fortunately, the neighbourhood’s security came over to ask if he needed any help. Lin Zi Rui agreed and moved the boxes up with him.
Lin Zi Rui opened the door with the keys and moved the boxes in with the security. After that, Lin Zi Rui thanked him.
Closing the door, he saw that all the furniture in the house had been changed, and they even looked like the exact models that he and Yang Shao Yu went to buy. So when Shao Yu said that he wanted to help his friend to choose some furniture, it was actually to buy it for him as a surprise. Lin Zi Rui looked at the furniture and felt really touched.
Suddenly, there came the sound of footsteps from the stairs.
Yang Shao Yu went downstairs and saw Lin Zi Rui standing at the door.
Looking at the time, he asked, “Why did you get off work so early? Why didn’t you call when you finished work so that I can pick you up?”
“Shao Yu, thank you.” Lin Zi Rui walked over to him and gave him a hug.
“No need for thanks. I wanted to give you a warm home, a home that would have the furniture you like. The home with the two of us.” Yang Shao Yu knew what gift Lin Zi Rui would like. It was a home with the two of them, something he would feel blissful about when he recalled.
“Okay, then I won’t say thank you, these two words. Oh right, I bought some stuff. Let’s display them, okay?”
“What kind of things?”
Yang Shao Yu watched as Lin Zi Rui opened a box. Everything in the box was in a pair.
Taking out the things with Lin Zi Rui, he saw that there were two sets of male couple bed sheets, toothbrushes, pillows, cups, and all sorts of things.
Yang Shao Yu’s eyes were glowing with warmth. He sat with Lin Zi Rui on the floor and took out everything, putting them up in the house.
This was their home. A loving and warm home. Lin Zi Rui and his home.
“Zi Rui, this is our home for a lifetime.”
“Okay, we will be together forever in this warm house. Always.” Lin Zi Rui hugged Yang Shao Yu tightly. When he was young, he didn’t have the love of his parents, but that was fine. Now, he had a lover who loved him dearly, Yang Shao Yu, and a home full of warmth. Shao Yu and his home.
On the other end, when Ke Yan and Jiang Qi went to the plaza where they confessed, it was already dark.
However, the Christmas tree shining with lots of colours was still turned on brightly.
This was Jiang Qi’s first time doing such an important and happy thing in front of so many people. That was, proposing to Ke Yan. He took out the ring box and went on one knee. “Ke Yan, I love you, let’s get married.”
Ke Yan smiled. He also took out his ring, went on one knee and opened the ring box. “Jiang Qi, I love you too, let’s get married.”
“Okay.” Jiang Qi let Ke Yan put on the ring for him.
Then, Jiang Qi helped Ke Yan to put on his ring.
At the same place with the same two people and on the same Christmas day, under the Christmas tree, they whispered the confession of their love 7 years ago and they gave their promise of a lifetime now. They had been through a lot, but the only thing that didn’t change was the love they had for each other.
In front of the Christmas tree today, they didn’t care about the others’ odd gazes and bravely kneeled in front of each other to propose.
Their fortune would continue on. They would always be blissful.