Chapter 13

Mo Cheng called nearly a week later, on a Friday. At that precise moment when the phone started ringing, Sun Fang was in the middle of brushing his teeth. He swore with his mouth full of ladder as he heard the phone ring, mumbling something he hoped his butler would hear. Meanwhile, he hurried to spit out the toothpaste.

His butler’s footsteps walked passed the bathroom and toward the living room, where Sun Fang had left his phone, arrogantly believing nobody would try to contact him while he did something as mundane as brushing his teeth. But called they had, and now it was his ever mindful butler to the rescue!

Sun Fang opened the door, listening with half-an-ear when his butler picked up the phone. He couldn’t really hear what anyone was saying but soon enough, his butler started walking in his direction.

He quickly brushed over his teeth and spit out the resulting mess, making sure it was all out. He finished just as his butler reached the bathroom and stopped in the doorway, holding Sun Fang’s phone out. Sun Fang picked it up, frowning at his wet hands, and pushed the phone onto his shoulder, trying in vain to keep it stuck in that position with his head while he quickly dried his hands on a fluffy towel.

”Hello?” he muttered while he worked, trying not to dislodge the phone.

”Sun Fang?” someone asked, their voice hesitant.

Sun Fang himself finally managed to dry his hands enough to rescue the phone slipping from his shoulder. ”Yes?” he asked, not recognizing the voice.

”It’s Mo Cheng,” the voice said. Sun Fang started, having begun to think the man wouldn’t contact him. He even brought his phone down just so that he could blink confusedly at it. Then he quickly brought it back up to his ear when Mo Cheng continued, ”Are you free tomorrow?”

”Yeah,” Sun Fang said. He wandered out of the bathroom and relocated to the living room. He dropped down on the couch and splayed his body out, drawling, ”Have a date in mind?”

”I do,” Mo Cheng shamelessly answered.

Sun Fang let out a small bark of laughter, dropping his head back against the armrest and staring up at the ceiling. ”Where to?” he asked, brushing back the long strands of hair over his face.

His butler chose this moment to walk up to him, holding out a hair tie. Sun Fang smiled at it, changing his position so that he was sitting up and his butler could braid his hair. While that was happening, Mo Cheng said, ”A new waterpark just opened up a while back, I thought it would be fun to check it out. Your thoughts?”

”Sounds perfect,” Sun Fang said. He relaxed against his butler, feeling the hands gently moving through his hair and untangling the knots. It had been a while since his butler had done his hair for him, and it filled him with a warm sense of nostalgia.

He continued to speak with Mo Cheng for a couple of minutes more, settling all the details for their upcoming date. Yes, being asked on the date only a day before it would take place felt a little strange—usually he had more of a forewarning to get himself ready. But he didn’t mind it; going to a waterpark alone felt kind of weird, so he’d take advantage of the chance to visit with company.

His butler finished braiding his hair, and Sun Fang laid back down on the couch. He scrolled through his phone, bringing up Stargazer and looking through it for any fun new stuff. His butler asked, ”Going on a date tomorrow?”

”Yep, with Mo Cheng,” Sun Fang confirmed. His eyes slid down the phone as he continued scrolling, and after a bit of thought, he went to Sun Yi’s profile.

Sun Yi’s most recent update was about the nice date he’d gone on with Marcus Davenport, Sun Fang’s former fiancé. Apparently, they’d gone to the premier of a movie already beset by buzzing about awards, and Sun Yi’s company had seemingly invested in it. Sun Yi’s post was just a picture of them after the premier, holding hands in front of the movie’s poster, and it already had several thousands comments.

Sun Fang stared at the two people in the picture, his eyes glancing between them. They looked somewhat happy, he’d suppose. Certainly, he’d never seen Marcus looking at him like that.

Just for the chaos it would cause, Sun Fang logged onto his official account for the first time in weeks and found his brother’s post, liking it and shamelessly commenting: Congrats on the successful investment! ;)

He pressed send before he could think twice about it.

He wondered how his brother would respond. He even wondered if his father would react in public, maybe making a post about how he wasn’t wanted anymore. Well, not that he’d ever really been in the first place. Still, he was sure that no matter their reactions, it would be amusing as hell.

Sun Fang continued to scroll through different social medias for a while, even writing a few more posts on his side-accounts. Eventually, though, he was defeated by his hunger and had to stop so that he could go eat. With an empty stomach growling at him, he sauntered over to the kitchen and had only just sat down by the marble counter, trying to think of what to eat, when his butler entered after him.

He was starting to think that the butler had some kind of sensors in the kitchen, as it always knew when Sun Fang was there. ”A snack, Young Master?” his butler asked, already in the process of taking down cutlery before Sun Fang had responded.

”En,” Sun Fang agreed. He fiddled with the phone for a minute before he put it down, out of his immediate reach.

His butler got a bowl of strawberry ice cream ready, and Sun Fang gratefully accepted it.

***

A/N: yeah, so, I kind of forgot about this place... but on the plus side, I won camp nano in April :D — 20k on a Patreon novel! 

I'm also considering throwing my hat in the ring for HF's new contest this year, though I have no delusion I'll get anywhere close to winning. rheumatism means I'm physically incapable of completing a story that fast, or even writing regularly, but I'm digging away at an idea and I think it'll be fun to try. (and maybe shamelessly try to take advantage of the influx of readers, lol)

anyway, sorry for the wait! but this novel's complete now (I'm currently editing it for self-pub) so at least you won't have to worry about it being abandoned (*¯︶¯*)