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Jiang Cheng curses, again. He really, really doesn’t want to make this call, but the longer he puts it off, the longer Huaisang will stay angry with him. And the pain in his ankle is beginning to get distracting.
“At least this time, I can blame it on you,” he tells Dolly, the ten-month-old golden shepherd puppy Jin Ling gifted him for his birthday last fall. He can just make out her dopey, loving expression in the sulfur glare of a service light affixed to the tunnel wall.
Dolly cocks her head to the side, left ear flopping adorably, as if to say, I’m cute, so I won’t get in trouble.
Jiang Cheng sighs. “Don’t get used to it,” he tells Dolly as he thumbs through his phone to the messenger app. “Being cute only gets you out of so much trouble.” He dials Huaisang’s number. “Babe!” he says when Huaisang picks up.
Huaisang sighs. “Really?”
“At least I have my phone with me? And it’s Dolly’s fault.”
“You can blame Dolly for farts and chewing up my new slippers, A-Cheng, not for getting stuck in...where are you?”
“Hawthorne Street metro station,” Jiang Cheng says. “And it’s totally Dolly’s fault because she caught the scent of a fierce corpse and dragged me down here! And she got so excited when she found her prey that she pulled the leash and cut across my path and tripped me.”
“Wait, what? A-Cheng, Dolly is not a spiritual dog. She can’t detect fierce corpses.”
Jiang Cheng winces, both at the throbbing pain in his ankle and the suspicion in Huaisang’s voice.
“She acted just like Fairy does when a fierce corpse is nearby,” Jiang Cheng says, although the excuse is flimsy at best.
“Jiang Wanyin.” Huaisang sounds dangerously close to losing his temper. “What did you encounter?”
“So it turns out, Dolly reacts to, um, raccoons the way Fairy reacts to fierce corpses,” he says in a rush. “And I think I sprained my ankle. So could you pretty please come pick us up?”
Huaisang goes quiet on the other end of the line.
“Huaisang?” Jiang Cheng asks hesitantly. “My love?”
“It’s date night,” Huaisang says.
“Yes. And I am so so sorry!”
“And now we have to go to the ER.”
“I mean, it’s probably just a sprain so we can put some ice on it and--”
“And I was putting together everything we need for hotpot.”
“Hotpot?” Jiang Cheng’s mouth waters. He really loves Huaisang’s hotpot.
Huaisang sighs again. “I’m sending da-ge to come get you.”
“Oh, no, Huaisang, isn’t there any--”
“I’m sending da-ge,” Huaisang says again, and Jiang Cheng can feel the icy daggers of Huaisang’s anger through the phone.
“Okay.” Jiang Cheng glares at Dolly, who rolls over and waves her paws in the air. “I’m down the track about ten meters south of platform two,” he says.
“Jiang Wanyin, you are on an active metro track?!”
“The next train’s not due for another forty minutes,” he says helpfully.
There’s a pause on the other end. “Da-ge!” Huaisang bellows, not bothering to move the phone away from his head. “Xichen-ge! I need you to collect my wayward husband!”
“Xichen, too!” Jiang Cheng cries. “He’s going to give me a Look!”
“You’re lucky they stopped by and not your brother. Or Yanli-jie,” Huaisang snipes.
Jiang Cheng is about to apologize again when Dolly flops over against him, knocking him off balance and causing him to lean on his injured leg. He hisses as pain shoots through his body.
“They’re on their way, A-Cheng.” Huaisang sounds more worried than angry now, and Jiang Cheng knows he’s in for a rough week ahead. And he knows he deserves it.
“I love you,” he says instead, “and our furry daughter loves you, too. Just so you know.”
“I love you, too,” Huaisang says. “Do you want me to stay on the phone until da-ge gets there?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Cheng admits.
“Okay. Let me put this on speaker.” There is a rustle and rattle, and then Huaisang’s voice echoes through the tunnel as Jiang Cheng puts his phone on speaker as well. “Shall I tell you a story?”
Dolly’s ears perk up as she hears Huaisang, and Jiang Cheng grins. “Yeah.”
Huaisang’s soft laugh washes over Jiang Cheng like a balm. “Alright,” he says. “Let me think. Ah, I know. Once upon a time, there was a handsome, careless prince…”