Thoroughly ignored, Camellia was furious, and nearly threw down the glass in her hand.
“Oh, poor Camellia.” Blair gloated as he came over, and clinked glasses with her.
Seeing Yu Tang striding over, Lilith nearly screeched and barely stifled it as she whispered, “Oh my god, that Asian aristocrat is coming over. Is he going to ask me to dance?”
Song Xiao had just eaten a piece of cake, and cream was still on his lips. When he looked up dumbly, Yu Tang was already in front of him.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment. Feeling that something was off, Song Xiao lifted a napkin to wipe his lips. “What’s the matter?”
Yu Tang glared at the girls around him. “I’ll teach you how to dance ba.”
“En?” Stupefied, Song Xiao was snagged by Yu Tang and could only hurriedly put down his plate of cake before Yu Tang dragged him to the dance floor.
“Whoa!” Seeing two boys step onto the dance floor, everyone tagged along and kicked up a fuss.
Song Xiao was blushing a little. He was very shy about hugging in public with so many people around, so he drew back his hand and tried to leave. Yu Tang grabbed him firmly, however, so Song Xiao could only clumsily follow his swaying movements.
As an aristocrat, Yu Tang had long learned this sort of social formality, and he danced effortlessly.
“I don’t know how to dance the woman’s part.” Song Xiao looked at the hand which Yu Tang had placed on his waist, and frowned.
“I don’t know the steps for the woman’s part either,” Yu Tang said expressionlessly. He only knew the man’s part, so he could only teach Song Xiao that, but two men dancing the man’s part together looked extremely strange.
Song Xiao felt that it was especially embarrassing, and could only lower his head and stare at his feet. Even then, he kept stepping on Yu Tang’s feet.
The two of them were in a “you hold my waist, then I’ll hold yours” deadlock, and neither was willing to be outdone as they struggled for dominance. They embraced and swayed back and forth stiffly in that way, yet it was surprisingly very cute.
“Wow, that’s too adorable.” Emily laughed as she took photos of them, while everyone else cheered them on.
Camellia looked coldly at that pair of damn gays, and fished her phone out from her bosom to snap a few photos of them, which she then directly sent to Yu Lang. When Yu Lang received the message, he was decorating the Christmas tree with his mother at home.
Every Christmas, only Yu Lang and his mother would celebrate at home. As an old-fashioned man, Yu Taixian only celebrated Chinese festivals, but he didn’t stop his family from celebrating other festivals.
“Darling, did you receive a good present?” his mother asked when she saw him smile.
“En, it’s a good present.” Yu Lang smiled and didn’t elaborate.
After Christmas, a set of GIFs suddenly became popular on social media. It was of two extremely handsome boys clumsily hugging each other on the dance floor as they swayed back and forth. This was just a school dance to begin with, and while two boys dancing together was funny, it wasn’t uncommon. For some reason, however, these GIFs became popular, and were forwarded by countless major accounts overnight.
Thus, when curious people clicked on them, the pair of handsome boys who looked like sprites really were very adorable.
There were two extreme views in America on homosexuality. One side was fully supportive, while the other side was dead set against homosexuals, and itched to beat them up on sight. Unexpectedly, however, these GIFs unexpectedly didn’t attract any abuse. After all, it was just two young friends playing around, so it was meaningless to insist that there was something going on between them.
Yu Tang spent a beautiful Christmas Eve with Song Xiao in his arms. Before they went to bed, Yu Tang solemnly hung up the Christmas sock, and requested that Song Xiao do the same. Helpless, Song Xiao could only hang his up as well.
When Song Xiao opened his eyes the next day, Yu Tang urged him to look at his present.
Song Xiao sat up sleepily and reached out to rummage around inside the sock. His hand touched something cool, and he instantly guessed what it was. Taking it out, he saw a dark green, jade xiao. A decorative silver pattern twined around the xiao’s entire length, and it looked very beautiful.
“This…” Song Xiao blinked and looked up at Yu Tang.
“To compensate you for the xiao.” Yu Tang hmphed. Song Xiao hadn’t been happy with any of the jade xiaos that Yu Tang had offered him in apology. He assumed that his family’s empress missed that broken one, so Yu Tang had no choice but to get someone to go to Chinatown and find the best goldsmith to restore the broken xiao and inlay it with silver instead.
Song Xiao could naturally see that this was the xiao which he originally had. He didn’t know how much thought the emperor had put into restoring this broken xiao. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“What’s there to thank me for, this was from Santa.” Yu Tang took down his sock and stuffed it into Song Xiao’s hands. “See if there are any presents for zhen.”
Song Xiao reached in and felt around before he took out a piece of paper with the words: “Zhen wants the empress to serve him in bed for three consecutive days.” This was probably the emperor’s Christmas wish, and Song Xiao couldn’t help quirking his lips. How could Santa satisfy this sort of request? After feeling around a bit more, Song Xiao really did feel something else inside, and he had a bad feeling.
“Take it out for a look,” Yu Tang said with a serious expression.
“Your Majesty…” Just as Song Xiao was about to say something, Yu Tang’s phone suddenly rang.
Yu Tang frowned, then turned to pick up the phone. The call was from Cao Gonggong, so it was in all likelihood an urgent matter.
Song Xiao swiftly took the item out for a peek. It was actually a large bottle of lube, and there was even an accompanying gift, an electric toy. The corner of his lips twitched, and he hurriedly threw it under the bed.
Cao Gonggong told Yu Tang about the news online. For the pics to be forwarded so many times in the span of one night, it was definitely someone who was fanning the flames and who wanted everyone to know about this matter. That morning, Yu Lang had pretended to carelessly place the laptop with the GIF displayed on the screen on the dining table.
Butler Cao had walked over unhurriedly to close the laptop and put it away just as Yu Taixian walked over and sat down to eat breakfast.
Two minutes later, Yu Lang came back with fruit juice. Seeing that his laptop had disappeared, his expression shifted. “Butler, where’s my laptop?”
“It was time to serve the meal, so I had the maid put it away.” Butler Cao smiled genially, and no one could find fault with it.
Yu Tang hung up the phone and scoffed in disdain. He turned his head to see that his empress had burrowed back under the covers, and he frowned. “Where’s my present?”
“There wasn’t anything at all.” Song Xiao pointed at the empty sock and paper on the blankets.
Yu Tang raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
During the long Christmas holiday, Yu Tang didn’t return to Los Angeles, and instead took Song Xiao skiing in neighbouring Canada.
“What’s with those photos on the Internet?” fourth uncle said to ninth uncle as they sat in the garden.
“What photos?” Yu Lang said with a seemingly clueless expression.
Fourth uncle stared at him for a while, then sneered. “Yu Tang’s performance at work is particularly outstanding. I was just about to tell second uncle that we can give Yu Tang more authority.”
Fourth uncle was the son of Yu Taixian’s elder brother, Yu Taixing, so he called the family head second uncle. Yu Taixing died very early on and left three sons behind: the eldest, the second, and the fourth. The eldest died in his prime, and there was just the second and fourth left now.
Hearing this, Yu Lang’s face didn’t change. “That’s good news.”
Fourth uncle smiled mysteriously. “I have a bad relationship with Yu Fu; we’re always fighting. You shouldn’t learn from that half-brother of yours.”
Yu Lang could hear the implication in his words. The fourth was saying that his relationship with Yu Tang’s father wasn’t good, so by extension, he didn’t like Yu Tang either. Hearing this, Yu Lang couldn’t help narrowing his eyes.
After the holidays, new students arrived at school for the spring semester, and the campus became much livelier. Song Xiao was still busy every day. On his way to his art course one day, he bumped directly into a thin and weak young girl.
The girl was wearing a snow-white skirt and looked as pure as a lily. She got up weakly and even apologised to Song Xiao.
“Sorry, I didn’t sleep well last night, and wasn’t watching where I was going.” The young lady was probably a little anxious, and Chinese words spilled out when she opened her mouth.
“You’re from China?” Song Xiao smiled. When one came across a familiar language in a foreign land, they would always feel friendlier. “It’s fine if you’re alright.”
The bodyguard was standing five steps away from Song Xiao. Seeing that Song Xiao wasn’t in any danger, he didn’t come closer. Song Xiao turned to go to class, and the girl followed.
“Why are you following me?” After walking for a bit, Song Xiao realised that the young lady was still following him, and he frowned imperceptibly.
“Ah?” The young lady raised her head somewhat blankly. “I’m going to class.” After all that, she actually followed Song Xiao to the same classroom.
“Oh, what a coincidence.” Song Xiao smiled meaningfully. He definitely didn’t believe that there were that many coincidences in this world.
Little Theater
Xiaoxiao: Broken mirrors are hard to fix, broken xiaos are hard to restore
Fish Tang: What’re you singing?
Xiaoxiao: ‘The Song of A Tyrant’
Fish Tang: Oh~ It doesn’t sound nice, let me teach you another song
Xiaoxiao: What?
Fish Tang: The cries of an empress…
Xiaoxiao: Wu… ah…
Fish Tang: You learn really quickly
Xiaoxiao: Dirty rogue