Chapter Fifty-Six

  Xu Yu-Yao stood beside the plastic Christmas tree, colorful lights twinkling around her like colored stars. She still smiled brightly and elegantly, her glass-like eyes sparkling with clear spring waves.

  The imperial consorts all felt an inexplicable stir in their hearts.

  "This sweater goes well with your scarf." Xu Yu Yao smiled brightly, revealing a small tiger tooth on the right side.

  Gong Xi lowered his head, the scarf was a Christmas gift from Xing Yun, he couldn't bear to wear it usually, today is the memorial day, Gong Xi took out the scarf and gloves to wear.

  "Ah." Wang Ji smiled, "This scarf was given by a friend." The joy was evident on his face.

  Gong Xi's father's face turned somewhat unpleasant, and he dry coughed twice.

  Xu Yu Yao's face also became a bit unnatural, her smile stiffly standing there.

  "Oh, Gong Xi Ge, you try it on. See if it fits." Xu Yu Yao's smile returned to her usual bright and cheerful self.

  "Fits perfectly, fits perfectly." Gong Xi was a bit flustered by Xu Yue's affectionate gaze, and hastily took the sweater and headed upstairs, her feet slipping and sliding as if the snow that had been stuck to her shoes earlier had just melted.

  "I'll go upstairs and try." said Gong Xi awkwardly, walking backwards while looking back.

  Sitting on the bed, I still feel a bit confused. Looking at the sweater in my hand, I start stroking the scarf around my neck that I haven't taken off yet.

  "Xingyun, you little scoundrel, aren't you coming back? You see, if you don't come back, I'll let someone else snatch it away."

  Xingyun seemed to have heard Gong Xi's inner voice and quickly returned.

  Studying something is like this, at first thinking, then following the thought to move forward, often encountering difficulties, and then solving them. What's most feared is hitting a bottleneck, getting stuck there, possibly for a long time without a way to break through. But problems always have a solution, suddenly one day, it's as if divine help arrives, and everything becomes clear at once, like a sudden enlightenment. Then all the problems are easily solved.

  Work made rapid progress, and not long after New Year's Day, Xingyun and their project team had already completed their work.

  Everyone was overjoyed when they were able to finish their work before New Year's Eve.

  When Xingyun arrived at the airport, he first called Gong Xi. Gong Xi thought it was a mistake and an illusion.

  He really heard Xingyun's voice, and was so excited that he choked. At the time, he was negotiating a deal with a client in a small conference room, and the client looked at him as if he had just become a different person, suddenly covering his forehead with his hand, his eyes welling up with tears, swaying as if he were about to collapse.

  "Palace Master, is it you?"

  Jiayu finally exhaled the breath she had been holding in her chest.

  "Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry, can we talk another day?"

  "Okay, okay." The other person looked at Miyoshi's state and waved his hand repeatedly, "Let's make another appointment sometime." After finishing speaking, he hastily opened the door and left, and even helped Miyoshi close the door considerately before leaving.

  "Xingyun, say it again! Where are you?" Gong Xi's heart was still racing wildly, his heartbeat was so strong that if he were hooked up to an ECG machine, he would have broken the device.

  "I said I'm at the airport, boarding in 20 minutes, arriving at Shenyang Airport in one hour and twenty minutes."

  ……

  "Gong Xi? Gong Xi! Are you listening?"

  "Oh, yeah, yeah." Gong Xi said hastily, then chuckled, "Happiness came too suddenly, it's a bit overwhelming."

  "Then just stay stunned, I'm hanging up." Xingyun heard his tense tone and suddenly laughed.

  "Go, go! The more you learn, the worse you become. I think you're almost crazy with your thoughts. You're really good at deliberately annoying me." Gong Xi scolded.

  "I'm rushing to the airport right now to pick you up. Which flight did you book? Is there still availability? What do you want to eat? I'll bring it over for you."

  "By the way, what's the temperature there? I should bring you a coat. And also..."

  Le De doesn't know east, south, west, or north, but as soon as he sees it, he knows there's good news.

  "Director Wang, what's wrong? You look so happy." The sales manager smiled and asked as he passed by.

  "Ah? Yeah, I'm pretty happy." Gong Xi patted his shoulder and walked over with a smile.

  "Buy cake, buy milk tea, bring a coat, and also a scarf, gloves." Gong Xi muttered to herself as she walked about the things she was preparing for Xing Yun.

  Xingyun has lost weight, and Gong Xi's first impression of him is that he looks like this, then her eyes got a little moist.

  Xingyun walked over and hugged him, and the two patted each other on the back.

  Unconsciously taking a deep breath, the scent on his lover's body was so special that it made him miss it to the point of going crazy.

  Jiayu whispered in Xingyun's ear, "I'm so angry I could die."

  Xingyun smiled sweetly and also nibbled on Gong Xi's earring, "I miss you too."

  After a while, the two people finally let go of each other's hands and stood facing each other.

  "You've lost weight."

  "You've lost weight."

  They all said in unison.

  Gong Xi still had the old habit, using the down jacket he brought to swap out Xing Yun's woolen coat, scarf, and wrapped it around him. He then took out a pair of gloves, but when he saw Xing Yun's hands, Gong Xi was stunned.

  "How did this happen?"

  Xingyun's chilblains on her hands recurred, with red and swollen shiny skin on the back of her hand, a string of small blisters on her little finger, and an even worse condition on the other hand, where all the blisters had burst, leaving a yellowish crust and scabbed surface.

  "It's all rotten, but I've gotten used to it."

  Gong Xi's thumb rubbed back and forth on Xing Yun's fingers, unable to speak for half a day.

  "What's wrong, what's wrong with you, silly? Your hands are frozen like this."

  "It really works, Palace Joy, after taking the medicine I don't feel uncomfortable anymore."

  Gong Xi stopped talking and carried Xing Yun's bag out. Only when they were in the car did he say, "The conditions there are quite harsh."

  "After some thought, Xingyun said: 'Actually, I didn't feel anything, it passed in the blink of an eye, and whether it was bitter or not, there wasn't much feeling.'"

  Gong Xi glanced at Xing Yun with a slanted gaze, his face pale and wan. His originally plump cheeks had also sunken in. Xing Yun's chin used to be round, but now it was pointed like a nail.

  Only one pair of eyes is still so bright and clear to the bottom.

  "Do you want to go again?"

  "Considering the situation, the first phase has just ended and the preparation work for the second phase will be completed in three months. So, it's not going yet, have to wait for notification."

  The palace was delighted to be silent, after a while, a hand quietly grabbed Xingyun's hand, not daring to use force, because it knew the hand inside the glove was in a miserable state.

  "I'll take you back to our new home first, and then we'll head to my dad's place tonight. I've already told him you're back, and he said he'll cook something delicious for you as a welcome."

  As soon as Duke Gong received the call from Gong Xi, his mood was so bad that it could be described as "losing one's father". However, the old man reacted quickly and returned to normal after being shocked.

  Laughing on the phone with her son: "Let Xingyun come back for dinner, I'll get Yueyao to help cook a few good dishes."

  Jianguo was still a bit hesitant at first and wanted to spend the night in his new home since it was rare for them to gather together.

  A short farewell is better than a long goodbye, let alone such a long separation. He didn't want to be disturbed by outsiders, but he couldn't resist his father's repeated requests: "You must come back, come back early."

  Gong Xi thought that since his father loved him so much, he should show some filial piety and agreed to it.

  The new house is decorated with simplicity and elegance everywhere, showing meticulousness and thoughtfulness.

  However, the two people who had just entered seemed to have no intention of appreciating this carefully decorated house. The anti-theft door behind them clanged shut with a loud bang.

  The bag in Gong Xi's hand fell to the ground, and the two of them were locked in a kiss.

  The biting, sucking, grinding, and urgent crashing of the lips broke through the delicate skin, and the bloody taste gradually spread in both people's mouths.

  "Hmm."

  No one cared about the blood or the stench anymore. If it weren't for the thin air in their mouths, the two pairs of lips stuck together would never have parted from each other.

  Xingyun and Gongxi were both panting heavily, the overly stimulating kiss having depleted the available oxygen in their chests to zero, which they were now hastily replenishing with new supplies.

  I don't know who started it first, but the two of them were hugging each other again.

  This time, it wasn't as stormy and urgent, but instead, slow and lingering, carefully licking the corners of each other's mouths, tongue tips.

  Heavy clothes were taken off one by one and thrown all over the place from the doorway to the bedroom.

  Jiayu was on the bed pressing down on Xingyun, pulling his pants down, but they got stuck at his ankles and wouldn't come off.

  "Never mind him."

  Xing Yun's shout.

  Jiayao also obediently gave up the military green pants and oversized leather shoes. Quickly stripped off the last piece of clothing on his body, and pounced on him.

  This joyful scene, it's unclear how many times they've done this, only when the two of them finally stopped, the sky outside the window had already darkened.

  Gong Xiguang put on his clothes and went to the bathroom to turn on the water. Then he walked back and said to Xingyun, "Come on, let's take a bath together today."

  Do the style to hold Xingyun, Xingyun's short hair was wet with sweat, stuck on his forehead, and he looked at Gong Xi with a gentle gaze. As Gong Xi stretched out her hands to pick him up, he kicked off the blanket from his body with his feet.

  Tan softly stretched out his body and opened his arms to Gong Xi.

  Gong Xi bent down and couldn't help but kiss Xing Yun's mouth twice again before picking up Xing Yun's body.

  The bathroom was lined with sky blue crystal tiles, and the bathtub was extremely large, big enough for two people to lie down comfortably. Gong Xi carefully cleaned the inside of the bathtub for Xing Yun, drained the water, and then refilled it with fresh water.

  Xingyun leaned back his head comfortably lying in the bathtub, closed his eyes, and let Gong Xi splash water on his body.

  It's too comfortable, Xingyun hasn't had such a comfortable bath in the bathroom for two years.

  In the bathroom, it was renovated after they went there, with only four or five shower heads, and more than 30 people rushed to use them. In winter, there was no hot water, and they just quickly rinsed off and hurriedly put on their clothes. Xingyun still couldn't enjoy this cold shower.

  Jiayu was afraid of cold water, so she would add a little hot water every now and then to keep the temperature at around one degree.

  After soaking for a while, Gong Xi saw that Xing Yun still didn't show any signs of wanting to come out, afraid that his body wouldn't be able to withstand the time, he forcibly applied bath liquid to him, rinsed him with water, and then carried him back.

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