Chapter 111 - Constellations

The stargazing was becoming interesting. It was fascinating to see stars popping out every now and then, filling up the dark night sky with small sparkling lights.

All of a sudden, they heard a faint cry of a wailing child.

Confused, Zeng got up and looked around when the sound became louder. "What was that?"

Yul got up too. "It must be the neighbour's baby, Anna. Mr Li said she has nightmares sometimes."

The glow of lights appeared from the next house and a few moments later, the crying stopped. The lights were dimmed again after that. Parenting was such a difficult task.

All these months, they never heard Anna cry. Maybe because she rarely did.

"You seem to have gotten close to the Li family," Zeng commented on how quick Yul was in his response.

Yul shrugged, pulling Zeng down so that he laid on his chest. "They are nice people." It was a known fact that Yul would not actively engage in a conversation unless he had approved of them and from the looks of it, the Li family had an easy approval.

"Yeah," Zeng agreed as he got comfortable on the body pillow. "They are good people. I have talked with them before. They were sweet."

Zeng smiled in relief to have such neighbours and looked back at the sky. "Hey, look! More appeared."

Yul scanned the sky. There were many stars up there now. His eyes almost immediately recognised a group.

"Leo," he whispered upon noticing a particular constellation.

"Where?" Zeng asked, excited.

Yul pointed a finger up in the sky, "That one right there, that's the centre star of the line. If you join that star, that star to this one and the one to its left, you'll get Leo."

Zeng observed, trying to form a mental image of the constellation but unable to do so. It resembled a stick, not a lion.

Meanwhile, Yul found something else. "That one's Orion. You can easily identify its belt. Those three stars, right there."

"These?" Zeng drew a line with his finger.

"No, the bigger one on its left. Then draw a line," Yul corrected and chuckled, "But no matter how I look at it, it does not look like a man."

"I know right!" Zeng 100% agreed. "Why would those people even make it up? Like you name it Leo, but I can't even see the lion. It doesn't make any sense."

"That's constellation for you," Yul hummed and got up because it was time for food. "Now let's eat something."

He took out the pizza boxes and set those in between them.

Eating when surrounded by candles and sitting under the light from the moon and the stars, made it feel cosy.

"This feels like a candlelight dinner," Zeng said, picking up the first piece. "I like it."

Yul smirked, cutting a piece for himself, noting in his mind to take Zeng out for a candlelight dinner sometime. Zeng enjoyed those classy things and Yul had yet to compensate for cancelling their dinner date that time when he went out with his team.

They had pizza while figuring out some more constellations.

During later moments, Zeng had leaned on Yul with his back on his boyfriend's broad chest and head resting on his shoulder, so that he could see the stars and their constellations while eating. Yul had to help Zeng finish the pizzas because it was too much for him.

After eating, Yul pulled the blankets over and huddled together with his well-fed boyfriend.

"Yul, you said you have lived a village life. Tell me about it," Zeng demanded when his interests in constellations wavered.

Yul wondered how to begin, "It's just basic. I mean, I have grown up living there so I don't think of it as anything special but it's definitely a lot better than the city. The air is clearer, there's more land, more space… And nosier people. There are still aunties, who keep asking my hand for their daughters' marriages.

"They do?" Zeng was alarmed though he didn't need to.

"Yeah," Yul gave a hearty chuckle. "But those aunties will be shocked when I show you to them."

Yul wrapped both his arms around Zeng and snuggled him. "They'll see that their daughters never had a chance against you."

Zeng raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you evil, Wang Yul? Breaking their hearts like that! Such a selfish move." He teased him.

Yul threw back without missing a beat. "So should I marry one of their daughters?"

"No!" Zeng stopped him right there. "Don't you dare."

"Look at this possessive bunny." It was Yul's turn to tease. He kissed Zeng's cheek when the latter puffed out to show his anger.

"I will show you the bunnies on our farm and all the birds. I will also show you to all the aunties and grandpa and grandma, too."

"Wait, aren't they dad?" Zeng rechecked.

Yul nodded, "Yeah but we can go to visit their graves together. They were cremated side-by-side."

Zeng nodded. He didn't know when they would be going to Yul's village amidst their busy schedules and workload. However, whenever they went in the future, it would be awesome.

"You know, Zeng ge, I never met my grandma," Yul disclosed. "She was gone before I was born. Grandpa was very happy when mom-dad had me. He was the one who named me. He was my best friend, my most favourite person in the world."

Yul had a fond smile on his face when he talked about his grandfather.

Zeng could tell they were close.

"Grandpa used to say when we die we become stars. He had even shown me the star that grandma became after she passed away. It was somewhere around there."

He pointed at an area on the right to Leo but the said star was not visible currently like many other hidden stars.

"You believe in that theory?" Zeng asked directly, without worrying about being insensitive. He had his views, Yul had his own. If those happened to clash, it was not the end of the world.

"I do," Yul said confidently. "Because after grandpa passed away, a new star appeared beside grandma's star."

Zeng gave him a skeptical look with dismissive eyes. "You are kidding!"