Luixian's expression did not so much as twitch for a split second.
His eyes, however, held something that a very attentive person might have identified as amusement, buried neatly beneath several layers of composure.
He looked at Guiying for a long moment without speaking.
Then he said, "You are remarkably shameless for someone who married a stranger forty minutes ago."
"I prefer the word efficient," Guiying said with a faint smile.
Liuxian looked at him for another moment. Then he turned and walked toward the exit, his hands still loosely held in Guiying's grip, neither pulling away nor acknowledging the contact.
"Come," he said simply. "My driver is outside."
Guiying followed, and allowed himself, very quietly, the smallest measure of relief.
He did not know yet what kind of man Liu Liuxian was beneath the cold exterior and the composed silences.
He had no idea how this gamble would play out, or benefit him the way he wanted it. But he was desperate, and if whatever returned him to this time pitied him, then they would let this strange man be better than Shen Zihao.
With his mother's face, he was walking out of the hall with a husband, a powerful one at that and at least one person between himself and those people.
For today, that was enough.
When they stepped outside, a sleek black car was already waiting at the curb. A driver stood beside it, straightening immediately when he caught sight of Liuxian.
Liuxian walked to the rear passenger door and opened it without hesitation. Then he raised his free hand and placed it at the top of the door frame, creating a shield between Guiying's head and the edge of the car.
Guiying stopped walking.
He stood on the pavement and stared at the open door, at the hand braced above it, at the perfectly ordinary gesture that was being offered to him as though it cost nothing at all, because to this man it apparently did not.
Nobody had ever opened a door for him.
He was aware, distantly, that he had been standing still for slightly too long. He was also aware that he could not quite make his legs cooperate.
Liuxian looked at him. The composed expression did not shift, but something at the corner of his mouth curved, just barely, like the beginning of something that had not quite decided to become a smile yet.
"Is this new for you?" he suddenly asked.
Guiying opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"It is only right that a husband opens the door for his wife," Liuxian said, his tone perfectly even. "Chivalry runs in my family, unfortunately."
Guiying stared at him.
'Chivalry.' Hearing these words from someone like Luixian was nothing short of surprising. He was used to being treated like trash, that he forgot that word existed.
In some ways, he thought of it as a cringe and a fancy way to label things done for people worth it.
He even acted arrogant, promising Luixian a child without shame.
He felt his chest tighten from a very familiar feeling. No one would feel this way just because a car door was opened for you.
No one….but Guiying.
He swallowed the bile in his throat, brought his bottom lip into his mouth and got into the car.
Liuxian closed the door behind him with the same pace and walked around to the other side without another word.
Guiying sat in the cool interior of the car and looked straight ahead and thought, with great seriousness, that this man was going to be a problem.
The car pulled smoothly away from the curb and soon the city moved past the windows in the quiet afternoon light.
Liuxian glanced at him. "Do you need to return home to collect more of your things?"
Guiying shook his head immediately.
"I cannot go back," he said. "If possible,never again," He paused, then turned to look at Liuxian with an expression that was entirely serious. "They announced my arranged marriage this morning. If I step back into that house right now they will lock the doors and I will not come back out."
Liuxian regarded him for a moment.
"So you have nothing but what is in that bag," he said.
"Yes."
"And your solution to this is?"
Guiying folded his hands neatly in his lap. "You will buy me more clothes, won't you, dear Hubby?"
Liuxian looked at him. Then he looked forward again and nodded once, with the air of a man accepting a situation he had brought entirely upon himself.
"Sure," he said. "You married a billionaire after all." His eyes moved over Guiying briefly, taking in the lean frame, the sharp angles, the clothes that sat slightly too loose on his shoulders. "Although we should probably get you some weight gain supplements while we are at it."
Guiying blinked, taken aback.
"At twenty-three-year old, you're way too scrawny," Liuxian continued, with complete calm. "It's concerning.."
He paused, then tilted his head slightly toward Guiying. "And I cannot believe I married a kid. What was I thinking?"
Another pause, shorter this time. "I knew you were young but damn. You are into older men?"
Guiying turned to look at him. "What is that supposed to mean? Just how old are you, exactly?"
"Thirty three."
Guiying's eyes went wide.
He looked at Liuxian's face, scanning him from head to toe. The clean features, the composed bearing, the air of someone who had long since stopped being impressed by anything. He had assumed early thirties at most. He had not assumed this.
"Damn," he said. "I married an old man."
Liuxian's expression changed almost immediately. He had not expected such a thing from Guiying, and for some reason he was not entirely pleased by it.
"Old?" he repeated.
"Mm."
"I am not old," Liuxian said, with a precision that suggested this point mattered to him considerably. "I am thirty three, that is not old."
Guiying said nothing, which communicated his opinion more effectively than words would have.
"I am handsome," Liuxian said. "I am rich. I have an excellent physique." He paused. "I am not old."
Guiying looked out the window.
"Sure, Hubby," he said pleasantly.
Liuxian looked at the side of his face for a long moment.
The driver kept his eyes firmly on the road and said absolutely nothing.