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Chi Cheng entered the house shouting. Anyone anywhere inside would be able to hear him, but at this time the only occupants were Chi Yuan Duan and Wu Suo Wei.
“I know he’s here! My people hacked your cameras. You brought him back! Where is he?!” Chi Cheng stopped directly in front of his father, seething with clenched hands.
The man, sitting comfortably in the living area with a cup of tea beside him and company reports in his hands, didn’t even try to deny it. “He’s upstairs in your sister’s room sleeping.” He shrugged, and added, “Or probably awake now with all your yelling.”
“Damn you!” His son turned heel and bounded up the stairs two at a time in his rush to get to Wu Suo Wei’s side.
Chi Yuan Duan shook his head, wondering what his next move would be to break those two apart. It wasn’t healthy for the boy and his son, well, he just had to do his duty by the family. He would have no choice.
Just as he put his papers down to take a sip of tea, more shouting came from upstairs. What now? The voice was his son’s, frantic and pleading, “Dabao, wake up! Wei Wei! Wei Wei, wake up!”
Not as spry as his son, but as fast as his older legs would carry him, Chi Yuan Duan made his way up to his daughter’s room. What he saw made his heart drop. Chi Cheng was leaning over the bed shaking Wu Suo Wei by the shoulders and getting no response.
“Stop this, stop playing around, Wei Wei, wake up!” When he heard his father behind him, Chi Cheng straightened and turned, his voice a thunderous roar, “What did you do to him!?”
“Nothing! I—I gave him a tranquilizer. He hasn’t been sleeping well, and he’s—” the man stuttered, “—he’s a chatterbox, I thought we could both get some rest.”
“He took it from you?!? He’s been on cold medicine for days.”
“I didn’t know!” His father shouted back. They both were aware, because of a scare with Chi Cheng’s mother, that cold medicine and tranquilizers didn’t mix. “I broke it up in his soup last night.”
“If he dies, I will fucking end you!” Chi Cheng’s whisper and eyes were menacing, but he quickly returned his focus to the unconscious boy. He crouched over him, laying his head against Wu Suo Wei’s chest, listening. One hand grasping Wu Suo Wei’s outstretched, still arm.
Chi Yuan Duan didn’t waste a moment, grabbing his phone out of his pocket and calling on their exclusive doctor. He was explaining what happened, while Chi Cheng yelled at him to shut up, still listening for a heartbeat.
The doctor gave Chi Yuan Duan an estimated time of ten minutes, just as Chi Cheng let out a relieved sigh, straightened, and promptly slapped the boy hard across the face, screaming out his full name. Unfortunately, there was still no response. He shoved the blankets aside and gathered Wu Suo Wei, all arms and legs, picking him up quite effortlessly.
“The doctor will be here in ten,” Chi Yuan Duan offered, stepping aside anyway as his son approached the door cradling the boy against him.
“I can make it to the hospital in seven,” he growled, stepping into the hall.
Again, they unfortunately knew that by experience. Even though it would be at breakneck speed, seven minutes was entirely possible.
Chi Yuan Duan was following behind when he saw some movement from his son’s boyfriend. One long arm had come up to Chi Cheng’s shoulder and a weak voice called out. “Put me down.”
“Wei Wei, my dad drugged you. We need to get you checked out,” Chi Cheng said softly, planting a kiss on Wu Suo Wei’s forehead. He didn’t see it when his father grimaced.
“Put me down.” The voice was insistent.
With such gentleness that his father had never seen, Chi Cheng crouched on the landing a few steps before the stairs, unwilling to let Wu Suo Wei stand on his own. Instead he cradled him in his lap, letting his hands run over him as if looking for other injuries.
His father stepped closer, amazed to see the silent tears of relief sliding down his son’s cheeks. “Wei Wei, don’t ever do that to me again. I have to go first. Do you understand? It has to be me.”
Suddenly, from the barely conscious Wu Suo Wei came a wailing that Chi Cheng’s father hadn’t even heard after the kidnapping. The boy threw his arms around Chi Cheng and burrowed impossibly closer. “No! No! I lost my father, then my mother! You can’t ever leave me! You can’t! The world would end! You can’t ever go!”
Chi Yuan Duan would never admit that his eyes immediately teared up at Wu Suo Wei’s desperate cries.
His son was stroking his boyfriend’s hair, shushing him. This had been a child allowed to show his feelings and not punished for it. Chi Yuan Duan, on the other hand, had yelled at his little boy to always be a man and never show when he hurt. To be strong and fearless. And here Wu Suo Wei unreservedly let all his pain out in great wails of sorrow at the mere thought of his son’s death.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Chi Cheng soothed, rocking him like a child.
“Stop, stop, I’m going to throw up.”
Chi Cheng immediately stilled, but kept his hands moving up and down his thin back. “It’s okay if you do. Everything’s okay now.”
“No, it’s not.” Fists beat against Chi Cheng’s back, so weakly Chi Yuan Duan thought his son would barely feel them. “It’s not. It’s not. You have to promise me not to go first. I can’t take it.”
Chi Cheng, holding Wu Suo Wei by the shoulders, gently guided him until they were looking into each other's eyes. His hands moved to cradle his face, gently wiping tears away. “Shhh, okay, okay, I promise.”
“Liar!”
What came out of Chi Cheng’s mouth next was truly baffling, but seemed as sincere as it was insane. “When we’re old and grey and can’t piss by ourselves, I’ll find a way for us to go at the same time.”
Wu Suo Wei’s large eyes glistened, and between gasping my breaths, he asked, “Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
Chi Yuan Duan couldn’t suppress a grin when Wu Suo Wei held up one hand and demanded, “Pinky swear!”
That sigh and smile that was part of his son’s personality manifested at that moment, just as he lifted his hand and untwined their pinkies. “I swear, Wei Wei, with all my heart.”
Wu Suo Wei’s pout became a wide smile. He nodded, released his hold on Chi Cheng’s pinky and threw himself back into Chi Cheng’s arms. “Okay, then, okay,” followed almost immediately by, “I said to stop rocking. I swear I’ll puke on you.”
“Okay, okay, let’s get up and take you to the clinic to get checked.”
“No, we don’t need them having bad opinions about your dad,” Wu Suo Wei glanced his way for just a moment. “Let’s just go home, all right?”
“Wu Suo Wei,” Chi Cheng’s tone was a warning but without any venom.
The young man batted his eyes and pouted. Then broke into a smile when Chi Cheng nodded in reluctant agreement. They were getting to their feet, when Wuo Suo Wei’s ankle gave out and he cursed.
“What happed to your ankle?”
“Just a sprain,” he replied, trying hard not to look Chi Yuan Duan’s way, but Chi Cheng knew immediately.
Holding the boy up with one arm, he pointed accusingly at his father. “You—!”
Wuo Suo Wei reached over and tugged his arm down and shook his head. “It was an accident, just an accident. Let’s go.”
Chi Cheng sighed, clicked his tongue, and then scooped the boy back up in his arms in one swift motion.
“Ahhh, Chi Cheng!”
“Hush,” he said, then glancing towards his father. “I’d be happy to never see you again.” The barb hurt but was not unexpected.
As Chi Cheng maneuvered the stairs slowly and carefully, not taking any chances, Chi Yuan Duan could only follow, inwardly relieved at how everything was turning out. He truly wished this youth no harm. Speaking of which, Wu Suo Wei was smiling over Ch Cheng’s shoulder at him. He patted his son’s back before he spoke, “Eh, eh Chi Cheng, your dad bought me some clothes while I was here. Why don’t you ask him to pack those for us?”
The stingy brat, Chi Yuan Duan thought to himself.
“You already have clothes, and I’ll buy you more.”
“With what? Your 100 yuan?”
Actually, listening to them bicker after what had almost happened was almost refreshing. He couldn’t believe this kid had his son wrapped around his finger.
“Look, no one else in the house can wear them and they’ll go to waste if we don’t take them with us.” The boy winked back at him, slyly.
And in the next moment, when they stepped onto the porch after Chi Cheng had managed to open the door even while holding Wu Suo Wei, he called back over his shoulder. “I’ll pick up his clothes tomorrow.”
“Sure, sure,” Chi Yuan Duan replied, nodding at Wu Suo Wei who gave him a covert thumbs up.
That kid!
He continued watching from the porch as his son eased the boy into the passenger seat of his car, strapped him in, and kissed his forehead. Before he closed the car door, Chi Cheng swiped a finger across the bridge of Wuo Suo Wei’s small nose, causing his father to roll his eyes at the sweetness he’d never expect from his son.
Without looking back Chi Cheng got in, started the car, and began to drive away.
It was Wuo Suo Wei who waved with a smile, half hanging out the window despite the seatbelt, and shouted, “See you soon, father-in-law!”
Chi Yuan Duan huffed.
But minutes later when the physician arrived, he gave the man his son’s new address and told him to go check on the boy. It had been his fault after all.
End.