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It first happens like this: Chu Wanning had come home late from Sisheng University, dark bags under his eyes and hair a disheveled mess. Once Mo Ran would’ve been suspicious about the whereabouts of his baobei, but after dating Chu Wanning for almost three years now he knows Chu Wanning simply has a bad tendency to overwork himself into the night.
If not for Mo Ran regularly coaxing Chu Wanning into a break every now and then, the man would never stop working until he collapses from exhaustion. Yes, that has happened before and yes, Mo Ran had to convince his uncle, their beloved chancellor, to force Chu Wanning into a week’s rest at their apartment. Since that incident Mo Ran has done all he could to make sure there's no repeat.
It’s three in the morning when Mo Ran hears the unlocking of the apartment door followed by quiet footfalls approaching. He sits up, pushes the blanket off his lap when Chu Wanning creaks their bedroom door open and the scent of haitang hits him in the face.
“Wanning,” Mo Ran props himself up on his elbow, voice hoarse. “You're back late. Have you had dinner?”
Chu Wanning glances at him and nods.
“You sure?”
“Yes. Just go to sleep.”
Mo Ran watches as Chu Wanning empties his work bag, then strips off his jacket and socks. In the past week Mo Ran could do nothing as Chu Wanning has been coming home late because he's preparing his students for their finals. Contrary to what Mo Ran once believed as Chu-laoshi's student himself, Chu Wanning is actually not an bitter professor who takes joy in failing his class.
Chu Wanning, though strict, cares about his students’ education. Mo Ran loves that about him. The way his baobei will pour his sweat and blood to make sure every student of his not only passes his class but obtains the highest marks possible. But now as his boyfriend, Mo Ran knows that his passion for teaching also means neglecting his health like this, coming home in the morning all sour and moody and forgetting his meals.
"Wanning, you have to eat." Mo Ran says, sliding out of bed. "I'll cook you something while you shower."
"It's fine, Mo Ran."
"You haven’t—”
“Then you can cope,” Chu Wanning says, irritation dripping from his voice. “Seethe.”
Mo Ran pauses. Chu Wanning, elegant and beautiful while too busy folding his suit over a chair to catch the way Mo Ran is staring at him with wide eyes, too elegant and beautiful to—
Is Mo Ran dreaming… or did Chu Wanning just—
"Mald." he adds absentmindedly, as that’s going to make things better.
Mo Ran definitely isn't dreaming. Noting Mo Ran’s lack of protest, Chu Wanning looks up to see Mo Ran staring at him from the bed, and his ears turn red from the attention. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"No... no, of course not. I’m just…”
Confused as hell! When did my baobei start speaking like he’s terminally online?
"Then if you have nothing else to say, just go to bed." he grumbles, and marches into the bathroom. Mo Ran watches Chu Wanning disappear into the next door, still recovering from what he'd just heard. In all the years they'd been together, a lot has happened; Mo Ran knows to always expect the least expected. But this... is weird. Very unlike Chu Wanning.
Chu Wanning is a talented, intelligent, ethereal man. That everyone knows. It's whispered amongst the students in the hallways and that's how Mo Ran first heard of the professor. It's when Mo Ran attends Chu Wanning's courses does he know them to be true, and only when they start dating does Mo Ran know Chu Wanning is so much more than what others have described him as.
But the thing is, Chu Wanning doesn't think he's a talented, intelligent, ethereal man. He thinks he's old, ugly, stiff and most of all, unapproachable.
"Chu-laoshi probably thinks his students won't come to him for questions about the finals because he seems cold," Xue Meng explained. "He wanted to seem more approachable, so I told him to smile a bit more, crack some jokes and maybe download Twitter."
"Twitter?"
"Look, I didn't think he'd start randomly throwing around Internet slang he'd found, okay?"
Mo Ran is one second away from strangling his stupid cousin with his bare hands. But they're in public during a Saturday morning, seated at a cafe table with people surrounding them.
"Meng-Meng, sometimes I want to kill you." Mo Ran says instead, hands gripping his coffee a little too tightly.
"I'm sorry, I regret it too! The other day, dad told Chu-laoshi to take a rest from tutoring the students, and you know what Chu-laoshi said? He goes, 'Okay boomer.'" he shivers. "That was traumatizing for me, okay? It didn't even seem like he's aware of it."
Mo Ran sighs, taking a sip of his coffee. Xue Meng continues to ramble on.
"... and after he said that, I wanted to tell Chu-laoshi to stop. But like, I'm just gonna feel so bad!"
Mo Ran can understand that. Chu Wanning's insecurities. He has a lot of them, and while dating Mo Ran has improved his self esteem quite a bit, he still has moments of self loathing. Honestly, Mo Ran would rather stab himself in the heart a thousand times over than to have Chu Wanning add one more item to his growing list of insecurities.
It hurts him even more to hear Xue Meng tell him Chu Wanning has been taking notes on his desk while scrolling through Twitter, reading guide books and putting too much unnecessary work into appearing approachable for students who don't deserve it anyway.
Chu Wanning is too kind. And Mo Ran doesn’t want to imagine the hurt on his face if he tells him that what he’s doing is unhelpful.
It's okay, it won't last, Mo Ran reassures himself. Chu Wanning is a smart man. He’ll come to learn around and stop using words he doesn’t understand. It’ll just probably just be a one time thing.
Except what should be a one time thing, has become a two time thing. Because the next morning, when Mo Ran is washing the dishes after making breakfast for Chu Wanning, he hears it from the dining table.
"This tastes good, Mo Ran." Chu Wanning says, forking a whole slice of lemon cake. "It's sweet."
Mo Ran smiles to himself.
“The texture of this cake is creamy, soft.” He continues, "I'm absolutely feral."
Mo Ran almost cringes. He drops his dirty spatula into the sink and turns around with a swallow. “Wanning…"
Chu Wanning blinks back at him. "What is it?"
Oh no. Xue Meng's right. The look his baobei is giving him is a little frown, one that is full of concern and it breaks Mo Ran's heart.
"Nothing, baobei. I'm just. Surprised." Mo Ran says quickly. "This isn't my best dish."
He waves a hand. "Nonsense. Mo Ran's cakes are always nice."
Mo Ran forces a smile. Any other day, he'd be eating up the compliments like a starving dog for scraps of food, but the image of Chu Wanning's beautiful lips forming a word like feral can't leave his mind. If it's Winning, Mo Ran can learn to get used to it. But if Chu Wanning keeps this up even around his students, he'll become the university's biggest laughing stock.
And sure, he can go behind the scenes, gut anyone who dares laugh at his baobei's... interesting use of vocabulary. But so far, Wanning's only been like this to Mo Ran and the poor Xue's. As long as Wanning speaks normally around his students, a little slang won't hurt, right?
Mo Ran finds Chu Wanning's profile a couple days later, after begging Xue Meng to send him a link to Chu Wanning's account because his baobei refused to. Unsurprisingly, there's no profile picture, no bio, no date or birth and not even any tweets. Mo Ran would've mistaken it for a private account if not for the fact he can see Chu Wanning's liked photos of fun astronomy facts and his visible following list.
Most of them are accounts from news outlets, administrations or charities. He's also following Sisheng University's official account and Xue Meng's profile and the Hanxue's (so not fair!) but most surprising is when Mo Ran finds his ex, Rong Jiu, in Chu Wanning's following list, and vice versa.
"Rong Jiu has made it clear he harbours no animosity towards me." Chu Wanning explains. "I don't why I must sever all contact with him."
"He may not hate you anymore but he still hates me! Also, why are you guys following each other on Twitter?"
"You found my account?"
Mo Ran shrugs off the anger in Chu Wanning's voice. "Look... just. Don't get too close to him, all right? He's not as innocent as you think he is."
They don't mention Rong Jiu and his profile for the whole afternoon. Mo Ran is more than happy putting the whole Twitter debacle behind him, but of course no peace lasts forever.
The same day Chu Wanning asks him, "Mo Ran, what does milf mean?"
"What?"
"I've seen the word appear a few times."
"You... Wanning, just mute that word from now on."
"How do I mute something again?"
It happens over and over again. Once, when Mo Ran is about to go grocery shopping. "I'll be back by five."
"Pog."
Another time, when Mo Ran stubs his toe while cleaning the kitchen.
"Oof. Mo Ran, are you okay?"
And the last straw is when they are fucking.
"I-I'm," Chu Wanning pants beneath him. "I'm in my slut era."
"Baobei.
"Y-yes?"
Chu Wanning, his beautiful, perfect boyfriend, needs to stop this before he takes this to public.
"Wanning," Mo Ran sits him down one night after cooking a particularly sweet-filled dinner. With Chu Wanning at him curiously across the table, Mo Ran's heart clenches at what he's about to do. But before he gets the words out Chu Wanning already says something.
"Are you bothered by how I've been speaking recently?"
Wait. How'd he—?
"Xue Zhengyong has told me."
"Oh."
Chu Wanning is fiddling with his fingers under the table, gaze turned away. Somehow, the knowledge that his uncle has spoken to Chu Wanning before feels worse. Nobody understands him the way Mo Ran does. Nobody would know if Chu Wanning is hurt or offended because it never shows on his face.
Mo Ran swallows hard. "Wanning. You're always thinking of your students and how you can get them to feel comfortable around you. But if—"
"My students? I never intended to speak this way with my students." Chu Wanning coughs. "It's embarrassing."
Mo Ran blinks.
"I thought... this way of communication..." Chu Wanning frowns, clearly struggling with finding the right words. "I thought you'd be happier."
"What?"
"I had consulted online with Rong Jiu. He advised me that is the most attractive to younger men nowadays. "
"RONG JIU?"
Red flashes before Mo Ran's eyes and his hands clench into fists. That snake! Of course it's him! All that talk about how he's forgiven Mo Ran for breaking up with him years ago, but obviously he's out taking revenge. Worse, using Chu Wanning;s feelings for him against him. Mo Ran swears if he sees Rong Jiu again he'll break that face of his.
"I told you not to get close to him!"
Chu Wanning's face is red. "I— he said he knows what you like, so—"
"Don't listen to what he has to say, he doesn't know anything about me." Mo Ran says. "What I like is you. Not whatever he's told you about me."
"Then, all this time..."
Mo Ran stands from his seat and Chu Wanning looks up from his hands. In a second, Mo Ran circles the table and captures him in his arms. "I was worried at first but, if you want to continue speaking like this, that's fine. I just don't want you to change the way you are because of me."
Chu Wanning mutters something against his chest, but Mo Ran is too busy basked in the haitang scent of his baobei to listen. He'll make sure his Wanning will forever know that Mo Ran loves him.
Everything is over. Or, it should be.
"Mo Ran?"
"Yes, Wanning?"
"Am I your babygirl?"
"Where did you--?"
"Am I?"
Mo Ran sighs, presses a kiss to Chu Wanning's head. "Of course you are."