Li Ming indeed kept his promise to himself: Even though Mo Fang tried to continuously seduce him and then even resorted to begging, telling him how incredibly lonely he felt without his boyfriend next to him, he continued to sit on the edge of the bed, looking at him with a smile.

"You don’t have to feel alone. In any case, am I not right here?"

"You’re right there but you’re not holding me in your arms, are you? How can you do this to your boyfriend?"

Li Ming reached out and patted his leg. "You’ll thank me tomorrow morning."

Mo Fang pursed his lips, not feeling like that was true at all. He really wanted to protest but he was realizing that he wouldn’t get anywhere this way. He stared at him for a moment longer and then figured that he needed another approach. Maybe … he should try to behave for the time being and then see if there was another opportunity later on. Telling himself this, he stopped making a fuss and pulled the blanket higher. "Well, you’d better not complain to me then. I definitely offered often enough."

Li Ming nodded good-naturedly, pretty sure that he definitely wouldn’t have any complaints later on. He was just happy that Mo Fang seemed to be ready to give up. "I promise I won’t."

Mo Fang still pursed his lips but then turned to the side, pulling the blanket up even higher and closing his eyes.

Li Ming looked at him and waited for a bit. Seeing that Mo Fang seemed to be serious about this, he finally got up. For a moment, he stood there, not quite sure what to do.

This … it was a new situation for them. And after this whole day, he also realized that some things weren’t that easy to deal with. So much seemed to have happened today that he really wasn’t sure how to cope with all of it at once. Actually, that glass of wine started to sound really alluring right now.

He hesitated for a moment but then went to Mo Fang’s bedside, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss on the temple before he pulled back. "You’d better sleep a bit to sober up. I’ll be back in a minute." He only whispered the words, not wanting to wake him up in case he had really fallen asleep already. Since he was slightly drunk, it might have happened this fast.

Having done this, Li Ming went back to the living room, picking up the bottle of wine and pouring himself a glass. He sat on the couch and leaned back, his brows creasing a little.

So much had happened that it felt like he needed a moment to think about everything. That matter with Bian Huan was cleared up now. It had just been a misunderstanding but it had shown that there were some problems between them that he hadn’t paid too much attention to before. Now, he couldn’t ignore it any longer.

The heart of the problem was probably that he had realized in the beginning that Mo Fang was willing to bend the truth a little to appeal to him. He had been able to deal with that because it had been, well, in the beginning stages of their relationship and also fairly obvious.

He had thought he would realize every time and after they were together for longer, it wouldn’t be important anymore because Mo Fang would stop doing such a silly thing. He had thought that at that point, the matter would be behind them. But now, he was realizing that while Mo Fang might have left it behind, he himself hadn’t. Because of this past behavior, his trust in what Mo Fang said wasn’t all that deep and he was quick to accuse him if there was the faintest reason. That was a problem.

His wish for honesty was something that had a lot to do with trust. He needed to be honest with his partner and he needed to know that his partner was honest with him in return to be able to trust in them and this relationship.

Apparently, Mo Fang had been honest with him this time around even though he might not have told him everything. But despite that, he still hadn’t had that trust because of what had happened in the beginning. To solve that problem … they would need to have a frank talk.

He needed to tell Mo Fang about how it had bothered him and that he didn’t want such things to happen going forward. If they talked about it and were on the same page regarding this in the future, then he wouldn’t need to worry any longer and something like today wouldn’t happen again.

And if they were able to be honest with each other, then he could also bring up things like his worry about Mo Fang’s drinking. Yes, this was the way to go about things. Just an honest, open talk. What was the worst thing that could happen?

He smiled to himself and slowly sipped the wine, feeling the rest of the tension that had been gripping his body and heart left him and he finally relaxed. Thankfully, tomorrow was their free day so they could rest up after everything that had happened. Sleeping in together and going about things slowly would probably do a lot for their relationship as well. Those quiet moments were really what he was often missing because dating Mo Fang was really like an adventure. There was something new every week.

Just when he thought of that, he heard a phone ring over in the bathroom. He looked up and raised his brows, realizing that this wasn’t his phone but Mo Fang’s instead.

Originally, he wanted to ignore it but then he remembered that Mo Fang might already be asleep so he put down the phone and rushed over, wanting to see if it was anything important or if he could just turn it on silent. If it was Mo Fang’s father, for example, having a short chat with Mister Mo himself and explaining that Mo Fang was already asleep would probably be better.

When he fished the phone out of Mo Fang’s pocket, he froze though. The name of the screen was none other than Bian Huan’s.

He didn’t know what to do with this. Somehow, there was a bad feeling in his gut. He gulped and wanted to turn the phone on silent but then, Mo Fang’s voice sounded from the bedroom.

"Bro Li, who is it? You can pass me the phone. I’m still awake."

Li Ming walked out of the bathroom and over to the bedroom as if in a trance and handed it to him without a word. Hesitating for a moment, he went back to the door. "I … I’ll be in the kitchen. I still have to prepare some things for tomorrow morning."

Mo Fang nodded and gave him a sweet smile, waiting for him to leave the room before he accepted that the call. His expression changed as well. This Bian Huan, he would definitely rip him a new one!