[曦澄 | XiCheng][MDZS Modern AU]: All The Things I Never Told You [~PART 2~]

〽️👁‍🗨 Chapter 184: ࿌‧̩̥Stranger/Danger‧̩̥࿌

Jiang Cheng was working with ease, not really feeling it as a work day.

Today, he was walking on air, ignoring the pains in his back and his ass; they weren't important right now.

Earlier today Lan Huan had given him a back rub, and he had been melting away, still feeling the warmth of the big, careful palms on his skin. It had been paradise.

He was working away, and the shift was going by swiftly, like never before. From time to time, he would steal a moment, to go back to the staff room, and check on his phone, and there would always be a goofy message by his goofy lover, small things to make him smile  –  be it some emoji or a distorted photo of one of his colleagues at the firm.

Yes,  he had finally given up, and deleted part of his inbox messages, so, while changing into uniform for today's shift, he just left his phone, amused, to update the list of all the pending, unreceived texts, and once ready  –  his eyes filled up with tears to go over Lan Huan's love letters from the New Year's party; letters that had waited for him, to be seen, for a week now.

The photos, the midnight rants about how much he was missing him, the silly problem of creating a special website, just for his photos of Taipei, as Lan Huan was sucking at it, the drama with his co-workers who half hooked up, the lewd, totally inappropriate jokes about them needing to bang...

His lover's love language was presents, but also attention, and showers of love, and sex, quality time spent together, and attention  –  waterfalls of attention... 

It was overwhelming, it was way too much!  –  but Jiang Cheng needed it all, thirstily, greedily.

Lan Xichen was eager to share his life with him, so much so that he now felt guilt at the fact that he still kept some of his shameful secrets from him.

But then... He wondered whether or not Lan Huan had his own secrets too. The fucking pig had said so.

He sighed.

Did he really care? What was more important? The love he had now,  or the hurtful past? A-Huan had forgiven him his trespasses, he hadn't thrown him out in the street after reading his file...

Who else would do such a thing for him? Who?

His parents? His mom?

Suddenly, a vivid picture of the two of them, sitting side by side in the doctor's office after Christmas, resurfaced in his memory, and he bit his lips. A-Li was all the family he had right now, but... it hadn't been his Shi-jie by his side, holding his hand, back then. It had been someone more important.

It was him.

He was so smitten that it felt like he had been waiting for exactly him,  all his life, all the time, up until now.

A slight smile appeared on his face, and he swore that those here were messages he would find a way to save, and never delete. All of them were precious to him. The memory of his lover, supporting him, even from a distance, in that horrible, difficult night  –  it was a memory he was going to cherish. A treasure.

Ever since Lan Xichen's birthday, he had been feeling like the richest man on earth. He held the greatest treasure of them all.

True love.

Smiling, he returned to the bar, he still had a couple more minutes till his shift started. Not that Bobby would mind the gossip, not at all! He was smirking and telling stories to a very peculiar customer. Someone who was hiding his face from him, but who looked awful, well, by the looks of it.