Xiulan impatiently taps her slim fingers on top of the pile of documents while she waits for Wen Wenyan to answer her calls for the nth time today.
"The number you have dialed may not be available or out of service coverage. Please try again later." The familiar robotic voice said again for how many times.
*Sighs*
"This brat, why is he not answering? Did something happen?" Xiulan worriedly mumbled. She tried to call him five times this morning, two times during lunch time and three times before 5pm. It's already 9pm and she only wanted to invite him to attend her second wedding but the bestie is not even answering any of her calls.
"He must be busy, very very busy." Xiulan sighed in defeat and decided to stop calling Wenyan. She really wanted to see her long time bestfriend but he might be in some faraway country again. The wedding will happen in two weeks and she's not sure if Wenyan will be available.
Xiulan turns off her laptop and pick up her bag and phone before she leaves her office. She will call him again tomorrow. He might be somewhere without any signal.
Since Hongqi's penthouse is only 5 minutes away from her office, she decided to buy some groceries to remove her bothered feeling regarding Wenyan's unanswered calls. Though their fridge is always full, she wanted to buy specific ingredients for the dish she saw on the internet awhile ago.
She was now inside a nearby grocery store and was picking some leeks when her phone suddenly vibrated. She expected that it might be Wenyan. She hurriedly looks at her phone to check but it was only her previous landlord.
"Miss, you may need to come here. A friend of yours, Wen Wenyan is currently looking for you and it looks like she's in some predicament." The message said.
[ A/N: Remember that Wenyan is trans and wears fashionable female clothes. Xiulan still uses male pronouns on Wenyan due to habits. ]
Xiulan quickly went to the cashier to pay her goods and hurredly ran outside to hail a cab like she was being chased by policemen.
"He's here? Then why did he not even answer my calls?" Xiulan irritably mumbles while she worriedly waits inside the cab. This dear friend of hers really makes her worried to death.
After an hour, she finally arrived at her former beloved apartment. The place seems to be quiet like usual but the landlord's room lights are unexpectedly open at this kind of hour.
Xiulan ran inside the apartment and to the landlord's room. She did not expect that Wenyan was really here and he looks like he got beat up. His beautiful branded clothes were muddy and he had a huge blackeye. His makeup was smudged too.
"Wenyan!" Xiulan quickly ran to him and hugged him. "Wenyan! You dummy! What happened to you?"
Wenyan didn't answer but instead started to cry on XIulan's arms and pulled Xiulan to an embrace.
"Wenyan… shhh…." Xiulan can't bear to see Wenyan like this. He was her bestfriend and like a little brother now little sister. She may not be using the right pronouns for him but it was already a habit that she must change. She was deeply worried seeing Wenyan beat up like this.
"Let's go inside. I'll cook something for you." Xiulan picked up the poor looking Wenyan and helped him walk towards their room.
Xiulan was busy preparing the bowls of soup, rice, and tonkatsu on the dining table when Wenyan came out of the bathroom.
"The food is ready. Come here. Gosh, you're making me worry to death." Xiulan said and hands him some chopsticks before they both sit.
"I'm sorry for making you worried. Family affairs again." Wenyan gloomily said before lowering his head to taste the soup.
"Is your family still against your dream? I thought they will leave you alone. You are successful and people respected you. Why can't they just move on?" Xiulan pointed and started picking the tonkatsu meat and put it inside her mouth. It really makes her mad whenever the Wen family starts to connect themselves to Wenyan again. They only bring pain to him.
"Dad… he baited me. I was dating this guy in London a month ago. Though we were not sexual with each other yet, I was falling so hard on him. He was really sweet and charming. But I found out he's one of my dad's spies and he was there to corner me to come back here." Wenyan suddenly started to share his woes.
Xiulan stops her movements and unbelievably looks at Wenyan. "That! That's what you get in flirting with different men!" She suddenly scolded him instead of consoling him.
"Aish! Let me finish first before you scold me." Wenyan rebutted and devilishly raised his beautiful plucked eyebrows at Xiulan.
Xiulan only gave him an eyeroll and started eating her food again.
"Once he cornered me to come back here. Dad beat me up while we were inside his private jet going back here. He said I must go back so big brother could marry. He kept saying that I'm the only help they could get so my brother would stop doing stalkerish stuff." Wenyan has a graved expression while he shares his family woes.
"Can't you believe it? They kidnapped me and beat me up just for a petty reason? Gosh! I want to pull each of their hair!" Wenyan angrily stabs the tonkatsu meat like he was murdering somebody.
"What does that got to do with you?" Xiulan nonchalantly asked. She doesn't get while they would need Wenhan. Are they allowing him to succeed one of Wen family businesses if he helped?
Wenyan gave a bored look at Xiulan and paused for a long time. "What?" Xiulan irritably asked. She didn't like that expression on him.
"You. My big brother wants to marry you." Wenyan said with a serious expression.
Xiulan choked on her tonkatsu meat when she heard what Wenyan said. She felt like dying when the meat was stuck inside her throat. She coughed very badly. She kept hitting her chest and drank a mouthful of water to relieve the pain.
"I know, very shocking." Wenyan nonchalantly muttered while he eats his food.
"What the hell is wrong with your family? I'm married." Xiulan said and announced a fact in case no one knows.
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"They already expect you to have a divorce in the future. They are so very sure you will have a divorce so brother wanted to be close to you again through me. They wanted the two of you to have a fruitful friendship while you are still married with the very hot Xing Hongqi. So in case, you will really get a divorce, my brother will catch you." Wenyan explained and stared at Xiulan's eyes to see her reaction.
Xiulan's expression was already knotted to a frown and her lips were pursed like she didn't want to say anything offensive against his bestfriend's family but they are really nuts to come up with this kind of plan. She may divorce Hongqi in the future but that doesn't mean she'll jump on getting married again.
Xiulan stand up from her seat and went to the sink to wash her dishes. She must go home quickly before she gets entangled to the Wen family's stupid plans.
Wenyan sneered from Xiulan's cute reactions and his eyes glinted from her hasty actions to flee.
"Don't worry, I already turned them down. I wouldn't get this blackeye for no reason, right? I'm a functioning person in this society without their help and money. Besides, I would side with you instead of them; you are my big sister, my mother, my auntie, my grandmother and my first and last female love." Wenyan smiled and continue deliciously eating the tonkatsu. He misses this type of home cooked meals from Xiulan. They were always together before like siblings. But he has to travel abroad to pursue his dreams.
Xiulan turned her head to look at Wenyan. She was touched by Wenyan's words. She didn't expect him to say that out of the blue. She quickly washes her dishes and sat in the seat in front of Wenyan again and gave him a cute smirk.
"What's with your annoying look?" Wenyan irritably said and contemptuously raised his eyebrows at her.
"I'm getting married again with Hongqi in two weeks. It's a traditional wedding. Can you attend?" Xiulan's glistening eyes tried to persuade Wenyan.
Wenyan sighed and started to play his remaining food using his chopsticks. "Sis, I would love to but I have to protect you from my family. I have to go back to Paris and continue whatever I was doing before my dad kidnapped me. I will send you gifts instead. But right now, I must protect you from their weird plans. Also, don't talk to my brother unless it's business-related. I think he might offer a business proposal to you soon." Wenyan apologetically said and warned Xiulan.
Instead of getting sad or unhappy about Wenyan's reasons, she gave him a big and satisfied smile. "Okay. So sweet this little brother from another world. I won't bother you anymore."
"Excuse me, its little sister! When will you start using the right words?" Wenyan grumbled.
"I don't know. I like calling you that." Xiulan said and pouted her lips.
"It's a good thing you're an important person in my life so I'm allowing you to call me like that. But if it's another person, I might have smacked their heads off." Wenyan grumbled and rolled his eyes. "I spent a lot of money to transition and you still call me little brother? Do you want to die?" Wenyan added like a diva and rolled his eyes on her.
Xiulan busted a huge laugh and squeezed Wenyan's cheeks. She didn't say anything but she only continued smiling and squeezing Wenyan's face.
"Tsk! Stop that! You might move my dermal fillers. Gosh, I don't want to visit my doctor the first thing when I come back to Paris just to align them." Wenyan ranted again but Xiulan only laughed more and more until Wenyan threw a huge pillow at her.
At 1 AM, Xiulan went back to the penthouse and quietly enters her own room. She didn't want to hear Hongqi's interrogation so as possible she moves very slowly.
It was already 2 AM when she finished her bath and she's currently in the process of combing her hair when she saw a dark figure beside her vanity mirror. It was the connecting door to the master's bedroom. It gave her a fright when she saw a huge figure and the eyes were looking at her.
The room in the master's bedroom was really dark so it created a scary silhouette when a person stands between the doors. She gasped when she saw the silhouette but she quickly realizes that it was Hongqi.
"Gosh! What's wrong with you? You scared me!" Xiulan screamed at Hongqi and pulled open the door to see him clearly.Xiulan's anger subsided a little when she saw his glorified upper body. Her fright changed to bashfulness.
"This man is topless again!" Xiulan secretly ranted while she quickly pulls away from her view of him. Ever since he announced that they are going to have their honeymoon in Maldives, he started to not wear any shirts inside this suite anymore.
"Are you a grandma? You're so easily frightened. Where were you? I expect you to be here by 9 or 10 pm." Hongqi interrogates and went inside her room. He sat on her bed side and pouted at her. He was topless and only wearing black knee-length linen underpants. His whole very masculine look suffocated Xiulan a little. She really didn't like looking at buffed or good muscled topless men. She felt shy just by looking at them. She was never fond of ogling at topless people specifically.
"I was with my childhood bestfriend, Wen Wenyan. He just came back from Paris." Xiulan informed her husband who's currently giving her a handsome frown. She kept her eyes on his face and not somewhere else.
"He?!" Hongqi didn't expect that. Why would his wife be with someone until late at night? And it was with a man! Also as far as he remembers she's not that close with anyone. He knows she has a childhood bestfriend but he didn't expect them to be this close.
"Yes. Though he's a she now. But it's a bad habit of mine." Xiulan apologetically said.
"Is that guy related to Wen Wuzhou?" Hongqi brushed off the issue of staying late with a bestfriend but now that he remembers that Wen Wenyan is connected to Wen Wuzhou, he felt like something's amiss.
Xiulan's eyes bulged when she heard Wuzhou's name from Hongqi's lips. "What is this… why is big brother Wuzhou's name kept popping? I don't like this." Xiulan quietly asked herself.
She nodded and made a questioning look. "Is something the matter?"
Hongqi didn't answer immediately but he was brushing his sharp jaw line like he was thinking something very deeply.
"Nothing. I just don't like him." Hongqi said and has a stern look on his face. He suddenly stands up from the bed and exited her room without further saying anything.
XIulan was confused at the moment and it kind of lagged to her why he was mad at Wuzhou.
XIulan continued brushing her hair again since she didn't understand where his tantrums' sources are coming from again. But Hongqi came back to her room and she quickly kept her eyes away from him like she saw something indecent.
"Look at me," Hongqi commanded Xiulan. He has that handsome serious face going on and adds that his abs were in sight didn't help Xiulan's current predicament.
"I really don't like looking at topless people. Are you in having a financial problem that you can't even afford to wear tops anymore? Do you want me to buy you one?" XIulan rebutted and kept her sight in the mirror.
Hongqi has been doing this topless thing to entice or seduce Xiulan but it seems that it's not working. As expected from his peculiar wife, her interests are really different from the women he dated before. He must try to look for other ways to seduce her.
Hongqi didn't answer her questions but instead reminded her of the dreaded honeymoon. "Remember, Maldives. As soon as our wedding reception is finished we're going straight there." He announced again and left the room with a naughty smirk.
Xiulan hurriedly stands up from the vanity chair and locked her door.
"That man is so annoying! Gosh!" Xiulan groaned due to her irritation.The more she sees him topless, the more she feels like the whole honeymoon thing will be her new nightmare.